Shattered Dreams: The Missing Children Incident
by SapphireMoon413
Summary: The horrific story behind the brutal slaying of six young souls at the hands of a sadistic child-killer and the haunting of the popular pizzeria. Featuring the identity of Purple Guy created by Ladyfiszi.
1. Prologue: Annabelle Part 1

**Prologue: Annabelle part. I**

Today was finally the day Annabelle had been waiting for: her best friend's birthday party. She had been eagerly counting the days for this joyous occasion and she wanted to look her best. Putting on her new blue and yellow dress and fixing her hair in pigtails, Annabelle posed in front of the mirror. Looking good, Anna! But I don't want to look too good, or I might steal the attention away from Tiffany. Then again, she always looks amazing, so that's impossible! Oh well, we'll just share the attention then! Reaching under the bed and pulling out a large birthday present, Annabelle smiled. Tiffany's gonna love her gift!

Setting the present aside, she grabbed the birthday card from her drawer and carefully slipped it in her bag. With everything together, Annabelle slipped on her shoes and took one last look at herself in the mirror. This is going to be a great day!

"Annabelle," a voice from downstairs called, "phone for you."

"I got it!" Annabelle said, picking up the upstairs phone. "Hello?"

"Hey Annie, just calling to make sure you're still coming to the party."

"Of course, Tiffany, I wouldn't miss it for the world!" Annabelle said.

"Great! Now, you know where Fredbear's Family Diner is, right?" Tiffany asked.

"The location is on the invite, silly! Don't worry, I'll be there." Annabelle replied. "Um, Tiffany... there's something I want to say. I was actually worried that you wouldn't invite me. You seemed a little annoyed by me lately, and I was worried that I somehow made you upset or something... I didn't though, right?"

Silence.

"Annabelle," Tiffany said, breaking the silence. "You're my best friend, of course I want you at my party; I _need_ you at my party. So you better show up, alright? Well, I better get going, I'll see you at the party. Bye, Annabelle!"

After hanging up the phone, Annabelle gathered her things and dashed downstairs. Walking towards the front door, she saw her caretaker, Mrs. Anderson, sitting on the couch and reading a magazine. "I'm heading out now," Annabelle said.

"Okay dear, have fun." Mrs. Anderson said coolly, not taking her eyes off the article.

"Um...I heard that mommy called last night. Did she, um... say when I could come live with her again?" Annabelle asked. "She said she would."

Mrs. Anderson shot a glance at Annabelle for a moment, before returning to her article. "No dear, she didn't. And please don't eavesdrop again, it's very rude."

Annabelle nodded her head and left the house without saying another word. She walked down several blocks and stopped to look at the invite. The diner was still a long way away and the party was scheduled to begin in less than twenty minutes. Walking there would take her about an hour. At this rate, I'm going to be late! I should have taken the bus.

"Hey, kid," a woman's voice said, pulling Annabelle out of her thoughts. "Need a lift?"

"Mommy!" Annabelle ran up to her mother and wrapped her arms tightly around her waist. Climbing on the back of the bike, Annabelle asked, "Can you take me to Fredbear's, I'm going to a party and I don't want to be late."

"I know a short-cut. Hang on tight, babe!" Annabelle's mother said, taking the short-cut.

Making their way to the diner, the two shared stories– with Annabelle doing most of the talking. She told her mother about school, life with her caretakers, and Tiffany. Annabelle smiled and clutched the large present tightly.

"Tiffany's so amazing and nice," she said, "and the coolest thing about her is that she chose me to be her bestest best friend!"

"Look at you rolling with the cool kids." Annabelle's mother said.

"Yup! There's also Molly and Louise, who are also Tiffany's best friends, but I'm her bestest. See, she even gave me a bracelet to prove it." Annabelle said proudly, showing the bracelet on her wrist. "And unlike the other two, I do things for Tiffany that they wouldn't do; like eat her gross cupcakes, or let her have my lunch. I even gave her my notes for class because she forgot hers!"

"Annabelle, you really shouldn't–"

"She's also a really good artist; which is why I went all out to buy her the best art supplies. See, anyone can buy those cheapy ones, but I bought the expensive type real artist use. Cost me around a hundred bucks, but it's for Tiffany so it's okay!" Annabelle said. Before her mother could say anything about the gift cost, Annabelle pointed at the diner coming up ahead and excitedly bounced in place. "Right there, mommy; that's Fredbear's Diner!"

"Alright take it easy, kid." Annabelle's mother said, turning her bike into the parking lot. She smiled watching Annabelle hop off the bike and jump in place. She wrapped her arms tightly around Annabelle and planted a kiss on her forehead. "Have fun at the party, baby."

"Mommy, wait." Annabelle grabbed her mother's shirt. "When... when can I come live with you again? I miss you..."

"Soon, sweetie, I promise." Annabelle's mother said.

"Not soon enough! I'm tired of feeling like an outcast in the Anderson's home; I want to live with you!" Annabelle exclaimed.

"Not yet, Annabelle. I know you don't like living there, but the Anderson's are good people. Just be patient, okay?" Annabelle's mother said, hugging Annabelle and stroking her hair.

"Fine," Annabelle grumbled.

"Hey now, don't be like that. Ah, I see two of your friends waving at you through the window." Annabelle mother said, pointing at two girls inside the diner. "Go on and have fun, Annabelle."

"Okay. Hey, can you pick me up after the party? Annabelle asked. "I really don't want to walk all the way back home."

"Not today, baby. I have something to do, but if I get done early we'll see. Now go have fun." Annabelle's mother said, lightly pushing her daughter.

"Okay. I'll see you when I do then." Annabelle said, waving goodbye as she approached the entrance.

Once inside, Annabelle was in awe at the party before her: balloons decorated the ends of each table– which were all decorated with confetti-pattern cloths; streamers hung all over the ceiling, along with a huge banner that read "Happy Birthday!". Kids from her school, along with others she didn't recognize, were running around laughing and talking with one another. One of the tables was completely covered in nothing but presents. Annabelle had to push several aside to make room for her gift. These sure are a lot of presents, I may even have some competition. Nah! I'm Tiffany's bestest best friend, so she'll love mine the most!

"Annabelle, there you are!"

Annabelle smiled upon hearing the familiar voice. Turning around, she was greeted by her and Tiffany's other two friends, Molly and Louise. The two girls hugged Annabelle.

"We're so happy you came!" Molly said, strapping a party hat on Annabelle's head.

"Yeah, we were worried you wouldn't make it," Louise added.

"I wouldn't miss it for the world!" Annabelle said. "Where's Tiffany?"

"Come with us," Molly whispered, taking Annabelle's hand. The two girls lead Annabelle down the hall, far away from the party area. They stopped and pointed inside a dark room labeled "Parts & Services". "She's in there."

"In... there...?" Annabelle clutched her dress tightly. "Why?"

"Don't know. She kept going on about wanting to show you something she found in there the other day. She wouldn't tell us what it was, though, all she said was that she had to keep watch of it." Louise said.

Annabelle swallowed the lump in her throat and kept staring into the dark room She wasn't afraid of most thing a lot of girls she knew were– like spiders, snakes, or other creepy things– but there was something about the dark that gave her chills. Annabelle could feel herself starting to shake a little. She nearly jumped out of her skin when Molly slapped her shoulder.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" she asked. "Hurry up and go inside before we get caught."

"Don't tell us the brave Annabelle Maebara is scared of a little darkness." Louise teased.

Annabelle bit her bottom lip and shook her head. "Of course not! Just," she took a deep breath and walked into the dark room. Immediately, she was hit with the strong, musky air that lingered in the room. Covering her nose, she walked further in and looked around.

"I don't see Tiffany any–"

 **SLAM!**

"What the–" Annabelle gasp as the door behind her shut closed. She ran up to the door and shook the knob. Locked. Panic began to rise in Annabelle. "Guys, are you still there, hello?! Please answer me, the door is locked! Hello?"

Silence.

Annabelle pressed her back against the door and slid down. She could barely see anything, so she reached into her bag and pulled out a flashlight. She was now grateful her caretakers made her carry one. Flicking it on, Annabelle was now able to see the room around her and how creepy it was. Shelves with empty Fredbear and Spring Bonnie heads aligned the walls, as well as boxes with different endoskeleton parts. Empty animatronic suits stood next to each other, pressed against the wall, and a little further down were the endoskeletons. Some were bare, while others had parts of the suit on them. Annabelle stood up and slowly made her way around the room.

Worry began to creep up on her as she called out to her friend. "Tiffany... are you in here, hello? I-If you are, please say something!" Tears started to prick the corner of Annabelle's eyes. That's when she heard a voice behind her.

 _"Anna...belle..."_

"Tiffany–" Annabelle spun around and froze. Standing in the far corner was a tall figure draped in black, wearing a Fredbear head. Its eyes glowed brightly, burning deep into Annabelle's. The creature opened it's jaws, revealing rows of red-stained teeth dripping with fresh blood. It saunter over with its long, metallic arm outstretched towards her. Now staring face to face, the creature tilted its head slightly back and let out a horrid screech.

 ** _"Skin... I WANT YOUR SKIN!"_**

Annabelle screamed and ran for the exit, dropping her flashlight in the process. She frantically banged on the door and shook the knob. "Guys, let me out of here! GUYS, PLEASE! Someone– anyone– help me!" With the creature looming over her, Annabelle closed her eyes and screamed.

"Mommy! Daddy! HELP ME!"

The door swung open and Annabelle found herself tumbling onto the floor. "Gotcha!" The party-goers all yelled as they gathered around Annabelle. She was speechless, that's when a voice behind her spoke up.

"You're such a retard, Maebara."

"Yeah, Anna-dumbbell!"

Recognizing the two voices, she turned to see the creature standing at the doorway with its black cloak slightly opened, revealing two boys– one sitting on the other's shoulder.

"W-What... T-Toby? Kyle? I don't– where is Tiffany–"

"You really haven't figured it out yet?" A voice said through the Fredbear head. Annabelle's eyes widened as the Fredbear head was removed, revealing none other than Tiffany. The young girl stood in front of Annabelle and shook her head.

"Boy, Annabelle, and here I thought all Asians were supposed to be smart. Way to set the bar down low." Tiffany said. "Oh well, at least you served as good entertainment; give it up for Annabelle the Brave, everyone!"

The crowd of kids around Annabelle erupted with laughter as they pointed and mocked her.

Molly snapped a photo of Annabelle and held it up to her. "Oh my gosh, look at your face, it's priceless!"

"Wow, she's really shaking, look at her! You guys really spooked her!" Louise said.

"I know right, who knew using an old mic, fake blood, and a black rag would do the trick!" Tiffany said. "I told you guys it would be hilarious!"

Annabelle stared at Tiffany in disbelief. _This isn't real... why... I don't– Tiffany planned this from the very start... no, it– it's not possible...!_ Tears fell down Annabelle's face. _Stop laughing at me... just stop, please! STOP IT!_ Getting up, she tore through the crowd and back into the Party Room. Snatching her gift and knocking several others on the floor, Annabelle ran to the exit. She didn't bother stopping when she slammed into an employee, making him drop several dishes. Annabelle heard the man yell "Watch where you're going, you fucking retard!", as she bolted out of the diner.

With nowhere else to go, Annabelle ran to the side of the building and collapsed on the ground. She curled herself up in a fetal position and cried. Suddenly, she heard a voice calling her name and realized it was Tiffany. Not wanting to be confronted, Annabelle quickly hid behind one of the dumpsters. She could see Tiffany, along with Molly and Louise, looking around the area.

"Great, she must have left already, and just when things were getting good!" Tiffany said.

"Man that was hilarious! You're so bad, Tiff!" Molly said.

"Yeah, but why are we even looking for her?" Louise asked Tiffany. "She's really annoying and kinda dumb."

"True, but that's why I befriended her. At first, I did it because I thought having an Asian friend would raise up my grades in math and stuff. But after seeing how stupid and gullible she was, I decided to have a little fun with her. Remember when I found those old cupcakes in the dumpster, and I brought them to school?" Tiffany said.

"Eww, yeah! And Annabelle literally licked the plate clean! I almost threw up!" Louise said, giggling.

"Or when you gave her that bracelet that you found in the girl's toilet. She was so happy that she was kissing it! I almost screamed when it nearly touched me!" Molly added.

Annabelle covered her mouth to muffle her sobs as the three girls continued to mock her.

"Well whatever, I'll just fish out some brownies from the DuBois' bakery dumpster tomorrow and give it to her as an apology. I have a slumber party coming up and Anna-dumbbell will make for great entertainment again!" Tiffany said.

The three girls laughed and walked back inside the diner. Annabelle slowly emerged from her hiding spot and cried out loudly. In a fit of rage, she slammed the present on the ground and viciously stomped on it. _Stupid! I'm so stupid! Tiffany was never my friend, no one was! I was nothing but a joke to them... I'm such an idiot!_ She picked up the smashed present and tossed it in the dumpster, along with her bracelet. Taking off her party hat, she turned it and noticed the word "DUNCE" written on it. Throwing it also in the dumpster, Annabelle walked up to the window and stared inside at the party. Everyone was sitting down cheering as Fredbear approached them with a large birthday cake in his hands.

 _Why... why did everything turn out like this? First with mommy, and now Tiffany... Am I just a burden to everyone?_ Annabelle clutched the window, her body trembling with a realization. _Mommy... is this why I can't live with her? Because I'm nothing but a burden to her?_ Annabelle pressed her head against the glass and sobbed. Everything she had planed– her perfect day– ruined in an instant.

"I wish I never existed!" Annabelle cried.

Distracted by her thoughts and tearfully watching the party inside, she failed to notice the purple car that slowly came to a stop and park on the back road behind her. Inside the vehicle, an adult male sat behind the wheel and watched Annabelle. Waiting a few moments to make sure she was alone, he stepped out of his car and slowly approached her.

"Hello there, little one."

Startled by the voice, Annabelle turned around to see a middle-aged man with shoulder-length grayish-black hair and pale blue eyes standing behind her. He wore a black jacket with a white shirt underneath and black pants. The man crouched down to Annabelle's height and smiled.

"Why are you crying?" He asked. "You should be inside having fun! You're at Fredbear's Family Diner, the happiest place in the whole world!"

Annabelle stared at the man for a moment, debating whether or not to talk to him. She was always told to never talk to strangers but realizing what a burden she was to everyone, it didn't matter anymore. Trying to catch her breath, Annabelle sniffled and wiped her eyes.

"Everyone hates m–me..." She said before bursting into tears again. "I was nothing but a joke to them– to everyone! If they never wanted to be my friends, then they should have said so instead of making a fool out of me!"

The man cupped his hands around Annabelle's face and gently wiped her tears with his thumb. "Alright now, take it easy. What's your name, pumpkin?"

"A–Annab–belle," Annabelle said through hiccups.

"Okay. Tell me what happened, Annabelle." He said.

Annabelle took a deep breath and began telling the man her story. Though she only meant to tell him about what happened at the party, she found herself telling him about her personal life as well. By the time Annabelle was done talking, she felt slightly better, but her tears refused to stop

"Well, that's just awful! I'm so sorry, Annabelle." The man said, gently stroking Annabelle's hands.

Annabelle looked away and sniffled. Redirecting her attention back to the diner, she stared through the window, watching Fredbear hand a slice of cake to each kid– giving Tiffany the biggest piece. Annabelle gritted her teeth and balled up her fist. She could feel her anger slowly returning.

"I hate them," Annabelle said bitterly. "All of them; I hate them all! Tiffany, the Anderson's, and... and even mommy! All they ever did was hurt me. They don't care about me, no one does! And if that's how it's going to be, then they can all just burn and rot in Hell forever!"

Annabelle felt the man gently pull her away from the window and into a hug. He wrapped one arm around her front while stroking her hair with his free hand. Annabelle tightly gripped the man's hand and bawled loudly.

"Hey now, take it easy," he said softly. "You're going to get yourself sick if you keep crying, Annabelle.

"Who cares! No one likes me anyways, so I'll be doing them a big favor!" Annabelle exclaimed.

Crouching down to Annabelle's height again, the man held her hands and smiled. "Well I like you, Annabelle; I like you a lot! And if those people can't see what an amazing, lovely young lady you are, then who needs them! I for one would love to be your friend– if you would do me the honor."

"Really? You would l–like to be my friend?" Annabelle asked. "Why?"

"Because I like you, Annabelle! And if that little gremlin, Tiffany can have friends, then I think you should have some too," The man said. "So how about it? Do you want to be my friend?"

Annabelle smiled and nodded her head.

"There's that lovely smile! You look even prettier, Annabelle!" The man said. "I bet once we get those tears to stop running, your beauty will know no bounds!"

Annabelle wiped her eyes and cleared her throat. "So what do we do now, Mr... Mr..."

"Oh my gosh, where are my manners? My name is Barney." Barney told Annabelle.

"You have a pretty name, Barney," Annabelle said. "So, you wanna go inside and wreck Tiffany's party? I can hold her down while you punch her in the face or stomach– whichever one works best for you."

Barney threw his head back and laughed. "Goodness no. No, no, I have a better idea. How about we go meet the real Fredbear and Spring Bonnie!"

"The real ones– you mean they exist?!" Annabelle nearly screamed when Barney nodded his head. "Yes, oh my gosh, yes! I knew they were real; oh my gosh, oh my gosh! Spring Bonnie is my favorite, I even have a keychain of him, see." Annabelle held up her key-chain to Barney.

"I'm sure he'll love to hear that. Now turn around and close your eyes, and don't open them until I say so, okay?" Barney said.

Annabelle nodded and turned back towards the window. She could barely contain herself as she covered her eyes and bounced in place. She could hear Barney's footsteps leaving, but then returning.

Something didn't feel right.

Annabelle opened her eyes and turned around. "Barney, what are you–"

Before Annabelle could finish her sentence, Barney lunged at her and wrapped his hands around her throat. She gasped and began struggling. "What... are you... s–stop..." The only response he gave was pulling her closer to him and tightening his grip. Annabelle tried pulling his fingers off, but it was no use, he was too strong for her. Lifting her off the ground, Barney leaned in closer to Annabelle's face and smiled.

"Your pain is wonderful," Barney said in a low voice, licking his lips. He couldn't help but giggle at Annabelle's attempt to get away. He dug his nails into her neck and tore some of her skin off. Annabelle gasped and kicked wildly, causing one of her shoes to fly off and hit Barney's leg.

"Hold still, you useless bitch!" Barney growled. "You're mine now, understand?! If anything, I'm saving you from your pathetic, mediocre life! No one cares if you live or die, you said so yourself; you're nothing! But that's fine because I love you."

Annabelle's vision became blurry and her body felt heavier. Even with tears further obstructing her vision, she could still see Barney's twisted expression. The man was smiling from ear to ear, licking his lips– salivating and panting. His once calm and gentle blue eyes were now icy cold and full of malice. Annabelle could see her life flashing before her very eyes and all through it, she saw all the people she cared about, breaking her heart over and over again. Every broken promise, false friendship, lie, conversation that belittled her; all of it made her realize that Barney was right– no one cared about her.

Annabelle's hands slowly started to fall to her side. She could hear the sound of music blaring loudly from inside the diner. _I wish... I could have seen them perform... at least once..._ Annabelle heard a loud crack, followed by a searing pain in her neck, and then nothing. All her pain was gone. She stared into Barney's icy blue eyes one last time before she found herself falling into darkness.


	2. Prologue: Annabelle Part II

**Prologue: Annabelle part. II**

Every inch of Barney's muscle's ached. He released Annabelle's throat and let her body fall to the ground with a loud _thud._ He needed to get rid of her body fast, but the question was where? Looking around nervously, he quickly set his sights on the dumpster. Barney picked up Annabelle's body and belongings, and rushed over to it. He opened the lid and was about to toss her inside, but then realized that she could be easily discovered.

 _Shit, I don't have time for this!_ He thought, nervously biting his fingernails. _If I wait around too long, someone is bound to see me, and if that happens I'll be royally fucked! But where can I– oh!_ To Barney's relief and surprise, he spotted a half-full garbage bag laying behind the dumpster. He snatched it and attempted to stuff Annabelle inside. However, there wasn't enough room in the bag to fully fit her whole body. Barney was starting to panic, but then saw what was preventing Annabelle from fitting inside: her limbs. He did a quick look-around, and once he saw he was still in the clear, grabbed Annabelle's arm.

"Sorry to do this, pumpkin. No hard feeling, yeah?" Barney twisted Annabelle's arm all the way around and bent it forward. He then grabbed the other one and repeated the process. Once Annabelle's arms were taken care of, Barney then turned his attention to her legs. Since her legs were a bit tougher, he had to stomp on her knee while bending it forward.

The sound of her bones snapping was music to his ears.

With all of her limbs finally broken, Barney was able to fold up her body and stuff her inside. Tossing in her belongings, he tied up the garbage bag and threw it inside the dumpster. Barney quickly took a peek inside to make sure Annabelle's body wasn't noticeable, and when he saw it wasn't, he made a dash for his car. Hopping into his vehicle, Barney started the ignition and sped away from the diner. Butterflies were fluttering in his stomach as he drove off the back road and onto the main road.

For years, his dark impulses had to be controlled– contained, but after seeing Annabelle and how vulnerable she was, he knew he couldn't control it any longer.

Barney had no idea how long he had been driving for. He was so lost in thought, that when he snapped out of it, he realized the sun was setting and the diner was no longer in his view. He pulled over his car and buried his face in his hands, trying to calm his nerves. He began taking deep breaths to try and stop his trembling and beating heart. Once he was able to stop shaking, Barney decided to head home and sleep off the rest of his growing anxieties. 

* * *

For the next several days, Barney was really on edge when Annabelle's disappearance made local news ans headlines. People began making small search parties, looking for any sign of the missing girl; flyers with Annabelle's face and contact info were posted all over poles and businesses. Even though Barney enjoyed every moment strangling the life out of Annabelle, his main concern was getting caught and sent to prison– knowing what inmates do to people like him. However, despite being a nervous wreck on the inside, Barney continued on with his usual routine like nothing had happened. He even joined a few search parties and came to a few public services held by Annabelle's family.

Police were everywhere, questioning different people and scoping around for any clues. Barney was glad the police never questioned him, but his anxiety kept increasing every time he saw them at Fredbear's. Annabelle's corpse had long since been taken to the city dump and possibly incinerated, but the lingering fear of them finding any form of evidence placing him at the scene remained.

Soon, the days turned into weeks, and the weeks turned into months. And eventually, Annabelle's case became a thing of the past. People stopped talking about her, search parties gave up, local businesses began tearing down her poster, and even the news stopped covering her story.

It was as if Annabelle never existed.

After the police concluded that Fredbear's Family Diner was to blame for their lack of video surveillance– among with their health and sanitation, and safety violations– the diner suffered a huge blow to it reputation.

Barney had never felt so much relief in his life. He had pulled off murdering Annabelle and getting away with it too. Feeling in the mood to celebrate, Barney decided to drive to the diner and have himself a slice of Fredbear's pizza. Pulling into the parking lot, Barney noticed Annabelle's missing persons flyer scattered everywhere. Ignoring it for the time being, Barney entered the diner and ordered his meal. While waiting, he looked out the window and saw a woman picking up the scattered flyers and trying to hand them to passerby's; only to have them thrown at her face or back on the ground.

 _That woman,_ Barney thought to himself, _I've seen her somewhere._

"Isn't that Annabelle's mom?" A girl's voice said.

Barney looked over at the next table and saw three young girls looking out the window at the woman. One of the girls– a red-headed one– smirked and shook her head.

"Man, even her mom is pathetic! She should just give up, everybody else did."

"Yeah, but I feel a little bad, ya know. I mean, what if it's our fault that Annabelle is gone?" A dark-skinned girl asked.

"Oh please! If it's anybody's fault, it's Annabelle's, not Tiffany's!" The third girl replied, flipping her reddish-brown hair back.

"Molly's right, Louise." The red-headed girl said. "Annabelle was nothing but a retarded screw-up with a dysfunctional family. I heard her father was actually murdered by her grandfather, right before he killed his wife, and finally taking his own life. With a history like that– plus her mom spiraling into a deep depression– Annabelle had no chance whatsoever! Besides, it's not our fault she couldn't take a joke! She chose to leave the party, so it's her own fault. More than likely, she probably ran away, so I'm sure she's fine."

The three girls continued their conversation about Annabelle, mocking and making jabs every chance they got. Meanwhile, Barney sat listening– amused and surprised by the girls reaction to Annabelle's disappearance. _So those are the girls Annabelle was talking about. Hmm, perhaps I should have taken Annabelle up on her offer and socked them one. Hell, I probably would've gotten the key to the damn city for my act of heroism just for taking them out!_ Barney couldn't help but chuckle at his own thoughts.

When his order was finally ready, Barney decided to take his meal on the go. The lack of customers in the diner was actually a little depressing. Barney left the diner and back into his car. Before he had a chance to close the car door, the woman with Annabelle's flyers ran up to him and grabbed the door.

"Excuse me, sir, please listen," she said with desperation. "My little girl is missing and no one seems to care anymore. Please help me, she's all I have!"

 _So she is Annabelle's mother... hmm, perhaps I can..._

"It's awful that people are just ignoring this! Of course I'll help you." Barney said.

Annabelle's mother smiled and wiped the tears in her eyes. "Thank you so much, kind sir! Here," she handed Barney a stack of flyers, "help me staple these around town. Maybe if people see someone new helping, it'll encourage them to help out too."

"Don't worry, I'll be sure to cover every inch of this town!" Barney said.

Annabelle's mother nodded and waved goodbye as Barney drove off– stacks of flyers seated neatly next to him. Once he drove a good distance away from the diner and Annabelle's mother, Barney stopped his car at an abandoned building and got out. Taking the stack of flyers, he took one out and slipped it into his jacket, while the others he tossed into a nearby trash pile. Satisfied, Barney returned to his car and ate his meal.

"Hmm, not bad," he said to himself. "But I'm still kind of hungry and if I go back, that annoying woman may be there. Eh, what the hell, I might as well go back. If the rumors about the diner closing down are true, then I better eat there while I can." Before driving away, Barney took out Annabelle's flyer and smiled, tracing his fingers on her picture.

"And once I get home, I can add you to my collection, my sweet Annabelle." 

* * *

By the following next year, Fredbear Family Diner closed down. After the disappearance of Annabelle Thornton, the diner never gained its reputation back. One day– after quitting his previous job at the motel– Barney was laying in bed job searching, when he came across an article about the diner's owner selling his business to the Fazbear Company. Barney was about to skip to the next page, when something caught his attention: " **Popular diner will reopen in new location under the new name, Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria. Management says the new restaurant will open in the following weeks and are now hiring people for security position"** Barney smiled from ear to ear reading the wonderful news. He quickly got out of bed and got dressed. Writing down the restaurant's new location, Barney got into his car and headed straight towards there.

When Barney arrived, he was a little surprised by the lack of people coming for the job. Then again, some people probably haven't read the news yet. He didn't have to wait long for his name to be called.

"Barney Miles." A man from inside the room called.

Once inside, the interview went very smoothly. Even though it was short and the job didn't require much, Barney could tell he really impressed the man with his resume' and his perfect work record.

"Impressive!" The man said, flipping through papers. "You know, someone with your work history is the kind of person we want. You're hired, kid!"

"Really? Wow, I don't know what to say!" Barney said, shaking the man's hand.

"Well you can start by calling me boss and," the man let go of Barney's hand. Looking down, Barney saw the man had given him a security badge. "Help keep the place safe. After that incident with the missing girl, we at Fazbear Company want to make sure nothing like that ever happens again. And with a history like yours being a security guard prior, you'll be perfect for the job! So what do you say?"

"Just tell me what to do and I'm ready to go." Barney said.

The man smiled and stood up. "Be here tomorrow morning so you can get the tour of this place and see what you'll be doing."

Barney smiled and shook the man's hand again before walking to the exit. As he was about to leave, the man stopped him and said "Welcome to the Fazbear family, Mr. Miles."


	3. Chapter 1: A New Start

**Chapter 1: Let the Party Begin!**

After the grand opening of the new Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria, the restaurant began to gain its reputation back. The horrible event that plagued Fredbear Family Diner was now a thing of the past– a distant, forgotten memory, and Barney couldn't be happier

The last thing he needed was for the ghost of his past coming back to haunt him

Even though it was better than his previous job, the few months working as a security guard were a little disappointing. Rather than being around the customers like he had hoped, Barney's time was mostly spent helping employees into the spring-lock suits, or checking the video feed in the back office. The only time Barney was able to walk around the restaurant was when he got switched over to the night shift. Of course even then, he was mostly in the back office watching the animatronics on the monitors.

However, as time went on, the restaurant's popularity grew and soon became a large chain around the city. Because of that, management decided to transfer some of their best employees over to the other sister locations. Barney was one of the employee's; among him were two twins, Lawrence and Melina Jackson, and Scott; an employee who's been around since the opening of Fredbear Family Diner all those years ago. There was once a rumor that Scott was actually the owner of the restaurant chain, but when confronted about it, he would either smile or laugh about the claim. Several others were also chosen, but Barney never really knew their names.

With all of the selected employees gathered in the back office, they were each handed a slip of paper with the new restaurant's address on it. Luckily for Barney, the new location he was being transferred to was closer to where he lived. Once it was closing time, all the employees that were reassign to their new locations cleared out their lockers and said goodbye to each other. With all of his stuff gathered together, Barney thanked his boss one last time before heading out the door, excited to see what working at the new location will bring him.

* * *

The next day, Barney drove into the parking lot of the other Freddy Fazbear's. Unlike the previous place, this one was a lot bigger. Before exiting his vehicle, Barney fixed up his hair a bit and took a deep breath. He was so excited about the transfer that he skipped eating breakfast, which he was starting to regret now. "Crap... well hopefully I can hold out until lunch time." Ignoring his growling stomach for the time being, Barney got out of his car and walked towards the restaurants entrance.

Once inside, Barney couldn't help but be amazed by the bright and colorful interior. The floors were checkered-pattern; the walls were grey and decorate with posters of Freddy and all his pals with the word "celebrate!" at the top; cut-outs of pizza slices and full pizza's, as well as paper-crafts of the characters hung neatly on the walls. The dining area was bigger than the one at the previous location, but it had almost the same layout– Tables decorated with white table cloths with confetti prints, metal folding chairs, and a large stage overlooking the whole dining area. On the stage stood three recognizable animatronics: Freddy Fazbear, the star of the whole show; Bonnie the Bunny, the guitarist; and Chica the Chicken, the other guitarist and back-up singer.

Barney walked further into the dining area and saw Lawrence and Melina sitting at one of the table's– both with a bored expression. Once the pair spotted him, they immediately perked up. "Thank God, now we can finally get started!" Lawrence said as he sat up in his seat. "Hey Claire, the last guy is here!"

Suddenly, a chubby woman emerged from the back room with Scott following after. "Awesome!" The woman smiled at the three employees. "My name is Claire, and I'll be your new boss! I hate long introductions so I'll get right to the point: Basically what you did at the previous place, is what you'll be doing here. Since this place is much larger than the other location, we're going to need some extra eyes to make sure customers don't go near the stage or robots, so Barney and Melina, I'm counting on you two. You were the only guards that were transferred so don't let me down!"

Barney felt his chest heat up with joy at those words. Though he wanted to shout with joy, he just nodded his head.

"Great! Now we have an hour before we open so take this time to look around and get acquainted with the other staff members. If you need anything you can come see me in my office or my assistant manager, Scott." Claire said, turning around and heading back to her office.

Melina and Lawrence got up and headed towards on of the west wing of the restaurant. Barney approached Scott and grinned widely at the man.

"What?"

"You know what, when did you become assistant manager? Barney asked, tapping his foot and eyeing Scott suspiciously.

Scott smirked and shook his head. "Hey, I had this promotion coming for a long time. I've been in the animatronic business a very long time, so it was bound to happen. But quite honestly I'm just as surprised as you. The minute I came in here they told me I was promoted, and then they took me around the whole restaurant; showing me how things work and what to do in a crises situation."

Barney nodded his head and gave Scott a silly grin. "Aren't we Mr. VIP. Oh my God, you have to tell me all about the executive bathroom! Do not hold anything back because if you do, I'm so not going to be your friend anymore!" Barney said, in a mock valley-girl voice.

"You promise?" Scott laughed as he gave Barney a playful shove. "Well I have take care of some things, so why don't you explore and say hi to the other staff members."

Barney nodded and waved at Scott. Walking over to the counter, Barney grabbed a coloring map of the whole restaurant. Looking over at the map, he decided to check out Pirate Cover first. Heading down the right wing of the restaurant, Barney slowed his pace down a bit to _admire_ the artwork that decorated the walls. He couldn't help but smile at the crudely drawn pictures of different kids with their favorite animatronics. It was actually kind of cute seeing these crappy little pieces hung up like they were the greatest pieces ever made. Shaking his head and smirking, Barney entered Pirate Cove.

Like in the hallway, the room was covered in children's drawings, except all the drawings were pirate-themed and featured Foxy. The tables were covered in the same confetti pattern cloths like the one's in the dining area; on top of each table however, were paper party hats and a Pirate Cove treasure hunt activity sheet. Pushing in some of the folding chairs, Barney turned his attention to the stage at the front of the room. This stage was smaller than the one in the dining area, and it was covered with a purple star-pattern curtain. Barney approached the stage and pulled back the curtain to reveal the star of Pirate Cove himself: Foxy the Pirate.

Foxy's appearance was very different from the other animatronics; Foxy had dark reddish-brown colored fur and wore a pair of brown pants; he wore an eye-patch over his right eye and one of his hands was a hook; his snout was long and his teeth were very sharp and fang-like. Because of his unusual appearance and sharp-tooth grin, Foxy had a very creepy, yet cool look to him that intrigued Barney.

Closing the curtains, Barney exited Pirate Cove and headed to the next room over. This room was an arts and crafts area that had everything from stationary paper to crafting fabrics; bins with colored-pencils, crayons, scissors, glue, and more, lined up neatly against the walls. Attach to the wall in the front of the room was a small TV. Barney turned it on and pressed the channel buttons, however, the TV was apparently programmed to only play one cartoon– which was Fredbear and Friends. _If you're going to come here just to watch TV, then why come at all? Why put on cartoons when the real show is happening live?_ Barney thought as he switched off the TV.

Looking down at the map, Barney realized he better pick up the pace if he wanted to say hi to the other employees and check out the other rooms before the restaurant opens. Exiting out of the crafting room, he headed down to the kitchen and introduced himself to the cooking staff that were in there preparing the food for the day. Afterwards he explored the employees lounge; the Parts and Service room; along the way he introduced himself to the other employees. Seeing as he had time to spare, Barney decided to check out the last two rooms that were on the map: the Game Area and Prize Corner.

The Game Area was something out of a child's imagination– The room was very bright and filled with tons of balloons and brightly colored decorations; rows of arcade machines; tables with the same pattern like in all the other rooms, but the chairs were different colors and had neat designs. A large carousel sat in the center of the room, and next to it was an animatronic that resembled a young boy roughly the size of an actual small child, with a red and blue striped shirt, a matching propeller hat, blue pants, and brown shoes. The animatronic wore a wide-toothy grin and had red-blushed cheeks, big blue eyes, and red-brown hair. In one hand was a sign that said "Balloons!", while the other held a red and yellow striped balloon.

Barney approached the animatronic and waved his hand in front of it. The animatronics eyes shifted towards the man and emitted a child-like laugh. Feeling a little freaked out, Barney decided to leave the room. _Creepy robot._ He thought as he headed down the hallway to the final room. Looking at the clock, he realized the restaurant will be opening in less than ten minutes. Barney was so excited he could barely contain himself. Finally, after all those years being stuck in a hot, stuffy back room, he'll be able to walk among the customers– among the children– Barney bit his lip and stifled a giggle.

With one more room left and time running out, Barney quickened his pace and entered Prize Corner. The room was more like a toy store; plush dolls, figures, key-chains, and other tempting prizes with the Fazbear crew on it decorated the shelves and walls. Under some of the items were the price of how many tickets they cost, while the larger prizes had not only the ticket price, but also a game score meter. _So kids have to score certain set points on a game and collect the tickets to get bigger prizes? Talk about a rip-off._ Among all the colorful decor and prize shelves, there was one item that really stood out: It was a giant birthday present with smaller present boxes surrounding it. Above the giant box were colorful balloons, posters, and several children's drawing depicting a black puppet with a white mask, emerging from the box and giving the children presents.

An uneasy feeling washed over Barney as he looked at the drawings, and then back at the giant box. _Is that thing really in there?_ Barney slowly backed away from the box– not taking his eyes off it for a minute. Just as he was about to leave, the box started playing a tune. Barney froze. Every cell in his body was telling him to run for it, yet he just stood there, frozen like a statue. Taking a deep breath, he slowly approached the music playing box. Inch by inch, he moved closer and closer until he was in front of the box. The melody began to slow down until it stopped completely.

Barney let out a sigh, however, as he started to turn around, the top of the box flew open. Barney held his breath as he slowly leaned forward to look inside the giant box, however, all he could see was darkness. Against his better judgement, Barney slowly reached inside when suddenly, the box began making another strange noise. Listening carefully, he knew what that sound was: it was the sound of gears grinding. The noise grew louder and louder, and slowly, the being inside the box began to emerge. Like in the drawing, the puppet was black with three large white buttons on its chest, long, thin black arms with white rings around each wrist, and a white mask that had red-blush cheeks, red lipstick, and purple lines going down its face.

However, unlike the drawings, something was different about the puppet's face– something wicked. Though the puppet was still smiling, its eyes looked different, like it was sad– no, Barney realized, not sad, but angry– the puppet was frowning at him. Before he could make another move, the puppet quickly latched onto his collar and pulled him closer. Now staring face-to-face with the creepy puppet, Barney's heart began to pound against his chest at a fast rate; sweat started to form on his brow as he continued starting into the angry eyes of the puppet. The puppet's white eyes burned deeply into Barney's. _Run. You have to run!_ Barney didn't know why, but deep down he knew this things wasn't just another animatronic– this thing was alive.

 _It's going to hurt me– it_ wants _to hurt me._

The gears in the box began to grind again, and the puppet emerged even further from the box. Now towering over the man, the puppet raised its fist high into the air. Seeing what the puppet was about to do, Barney shoved the puppet as hard as he could and shouted, "NO! STAY AWAY FROM ME!" Barney fell backwards shouting at the glaring puppet. His panicked screamed echoed through the hallway, alerting his co-workers nearby.

"Hey Barney, are you okay, what happened?" Scott asked as he grabbed Barney's shoulder.

Panting, Barney raised a shaky finger at the puppet. "I-it tried to attack me! Look at its face it's–" Barney paused as he looked back at its face; the puppet was no longer frowning and its white pupils had vanished, leaving it with a creepy, but normal face.

"Attack you?" Claire couldn't help but laugh. "It's not trying to attack you, it was trying to give you something. See, look."

The puppet lowered its raised fist to Barney's eye-level and slowly uncurled it's long, thin fingers. In its palm was a piece of strawberry candy and a golden Bonnie key-chain. Scott looked at the key-chain with a puzzled look on his face.

"A Spring Bonnie key-chain? We don't have any of the spring animatronic merchandise, so where did it come from?"

Claire shrugged her shoulders. "Beats me. Maybe it got mixed up with our shipment of items." Claire turned her attention back to Barney and nudged him. "Well, aren't you going to take your prize?"

Seeing as all eyes were on him, Barney carefully took the key-chain and candy from the puppet's hand. Tucking the key-chain into his pocket, he slowly unwrapped the candy and popped it into his mouth. Though its face remained the same, Barney could see a look of satisfaction in the puppet's blank eyes as it slowly descended back into the box.

Looking at her watch, Claire cleared her throat. "Okay guys enough fooling around, we're about to open so look alive!" Claire left the room, leaving Scott and Barney alone. Scott couldn't help but smirk as he helped Barney up.

"I see you got well acquainted with our good ol' pal, the Puppet– or Marionette, that thing has many names.

Barney glared at Scott for a moment, and then at the box. "That thing was glaring at me, I saw it. Its eyes, they were– you know what, never-mind." Barney felt dumb as the words left his mouth. Even if what he saw was real, who would believe him?

Scott put his hand on Barney's shoulder and gave him a patient smile. "Hey man, if you're not feeling alright you can lay down a bit or–"

"I'm fine!" Barney snapped, though not meaning too. "I'm sorry. Its just that thing really spooked me and... maybe I'm just anxious.

"Barney," Scott said, "it's fine. To be honest, I don't like that thing either. When I first saw it, I freaked too; I mean, from all the animatronics, why did they put some hideous, mutated sock monkey with a scary jester mask in charge of giving prizes?"

"Yeah." Barney chuckled. "We should go now, or Claire might stuff us in the box if we continue to dawdle around.

Chuckling and nodding in agreement, the two men walked out of Prize Corner; ready to start the work day.


	4. Chapter 2: Ken

**Chapter 2: Ken**

Within a matter of minutes of opening the restaurant, customers began pouring in. Families and groups of kids filled up the empty seats, and the once quiet restaurant was filled with the sounds of music and the excited screams and laughter of children. Because the kids have to go to school, the restaurant opens around noon, while during the summer when school is out, they open around 9 or 10 AM. But because today was a holiday, they decided to open up an hour early.

Barney was so excited to finally be around the costumers, and not stuck in some hot, stuffy backroom. Out here he could be around the children and even talk to them. He was quite surprised how quickly some of the kids took to him. He had expected this to be harder, but it was very easy. Whenever a kid became rowdy or started a tantrum, he would talk to them and then they would calm down. The only real problem he had was with two young twin girls who kept jumping on people with long hair; trying to braid it– including his. Though once he made the threat of calling their parents, the girls quickly apologized and went back to the Dining Area.

"Damn, I'm better than I thought!" Barney said aloud to himself. Smiling, Barney walked up to the counter where Scott was helping a waitress put more coins in the register.

Looking up at Barney's face, Scott grinned and cocked an eyebrow. "Well aren't you in a good mood. Looks like someone is having fun at their job."

"Actually, this is the easiest job I ever had! Good pay, good boss, and the children settle down fast when I talk to them. Aside from the Puppet, the attractions aren't too bad either." Barney leaned against the counter, watching as excited children ran to see the robotic band play their song.

"Glad to hear that. By the way, they're bringing the spring-lock suits over here." Scott said

"What, why? We're not planning to use them, so why bring them here?" Barney ran his hand through his hair and sighed. "I really don't like those suits; they were always moist, sticky, and really dirty. Just thinking about it makes me want to hurl."

"Not to mention dangerous... I still don't understand why they continued using those suits, even after those brutal deaths." Scott muttered as he put the last coins away, shutting the register.

"Deaths? What are you talking about– did something happen with the suits?" Barney asked curiously. Noticing Scott's worried expression, Barney pressed further. "Scott, you're hiding something aren't you? Tell me."

Before Scott could open his mouth, the sound of glass shattering followed by a child's angry voice, pulled both men from their conversation.

Barney ran into the Dining Area and saw where the noise was coming from: at one of the tables in the far right was a young boy, standing on the chair and glaring at a man who sat across from him; on the floor was a smashed plate and cup. The woman that sat at the table was trying to get the boy to sit down.

Barney quickly made his way over to the family and intervened. "Is there a problem over here?"

The man that sat across from the young boy glared at the child. "I don't know; Ken, is there a problem here? the young boy known as Ken, stood glaring at the man, not taking his eyes off him for a minute. "Ken, I asked you a question, now I expect you to–"

"Fuck you, David!" Ken spat.

"Ken! You watch your language right this second!" The woman said. "I just wanted us to spend some time together as a family, but if you keep this attitude up, we are going home!"

Ken turned towards the woman while pointing his finger at the man known as David. "But mom, he's not family nor will he ever be! He's just some asshole who butted his way in here!"

Needing to stop the fight before it escalates further, Barney spoke to Ken in a stern voice. "Excuse me, young man, but you do not speak that way to any adult, understand? Now, get off the chair before you hurt yourself, apologize to your parents, and behave yourself!"

Ken turned towards Barney with his brow cocked and a smirk on his face. "Are you for real? Dude, shut your mouth and mind your own business, okay? Seriously, shut up, prick."

Barney was at a lost for words. He stood staring at the boy for a moment before grabbing his arm. _Little prick, I ought to snap your damn neck, right here right now!_ Barney knelt down a bit to Ken's level and spoke to him in a calm, low voice. "Do not talk to me that way ever again. Now sit down and behave yourself, or I'll write you up and if I do, you'll be banned from playing any of our games, do you understand?"

Ken stared at Barney for a moment and slowly nodded his head. "Yeah, okay," with his free hand, Ken leaned over and picked up a slice of pizza. Barney released his grip on Ken's arm and nodded back. Before he could even move, Ken grabbed him by his collar.

"Hey stupid, ban this!" With the slice of pizza he had grabbed, Ken smashed it in Barney's face as hard as he could. Barney gasped and pulled himself away from the boy; the hot pizza slice slid down his face and onto the floor. Satisfied, Ken jumped off his seat and ran outside, ignoring the angry shouts of his parents. Barney stood there for a moment, trembling with shock and anger; his fist balled up and his jaw clenched. He took a deep breath and exhaled loudly, trying to calm himself down.

"Sir, we are so sorry, are you alright?" Ken's mother asked as she ran up to Barney, dabbing a wet nap on his face.

"He's gone too far, Faye!" David said. "It'll be a matter of time before he becomes a delinquent! I'm gonna go talk to him and–"

"Wait," Barney took the wet nap from the woman and wiped off the rest of the pizza sauce from his face. "I'll talk to him, I have a few things I want to say to him." Barney didn't wait for a response, and headed straight towards the exit.

Stepping outside, Barney looked around to see where Ken went. Quite honestly, it would be a blessing if the boy ran off and possible hit by a car, Barney thought. It didn't take long for him to find the young boy sitting against the wall, his face buried in his knees, and a photo in his hand. Barney approached the child and knelt down next to him. _One quick twist to your neck and it'll be all over..._

"Hey, are you alright?" Ken didn't bother looking up at the man and kept his face hidden in his knees. Barney cleared his throat, "you know, what you did back there was very bad. I don't know what's going on in your life but–"

"Yeah you don't know, so butt-out and leave me alone!" Ken glared at Barney, tears running down his face. Barney stared at Ken for a moment, he could feel his anger slowly returning, so he took a deep breath and gave the boy a patient smile.

"Look kid– Ken, I may not know what you're going through, but you need to come back inside and apologize to your parents."

Ken shook his head. "That man is not my parent! I have a dad, see." Ken handed Barney a photograph of him with a man. The picture showed Ken with an older man, both of them laughing and Ken piggy-backing on the man's back. "We took that picture a few weeks before my mom took me to live in the US. I miss my family, but more importantly, my dad."

Barney flipped the picture over and looked at the writing on the back. "You're from... China, correct? Hmm, I see." Barney handed Ken back the picture. "I'm sorry you had to leave your family behind, but attacking people and lashing out is no way to deal it. Now come back inside and apologize to your mom and her friend."

Ken shook his head. "Make me."

Barney frowned at the boy, and then closed his eyes, thinking of a way to get the boy back inside. Suddenly an idea popped into his head. Barney scooted closer to Ken and smiled at him. "Okay, fine, stay out here, but you know I can't leave you by yourself so I'll stay with you!" Barney stared at Ken with a big smile on his face. Ken glance at Barney and scoffed. He knew the man would probably give up after awhile. However, several minutes passed and Barney was still staring at him.

Feeling frustrated, Ken snapped. "Stop staring at me, you creep!" Seeing as the comment only made the man's smile grow, Ken let out a nervous groan. "God, you're so weird! It's been ten-minutes and you haven't even blinked once! Y-you can't keep this up forever!" Ken felt sweat forming on his brow as he tried to ignore the man's creepy smile.

"Hmm..." Barney leaned closer to Ken and widened his toothy-grin. Unable to take it anymore, Ken jumped up.

"Okay okay, you win! I'll go back inside and apologize, just stop being so creepy!"

Barney stood up, feeling victorious. "Good." He held the door open as Ken ran inside and back to his family. Following after, Barney approached the family and smiled.

"I hope we won't have any more unpleasant outburst while we're here."

 _Because next time, I'll tie your tongue in a knot!_

Ken looked down at the ground and mumbled something under his breath. "No... and... I'm sorry." Barney smiled and patted the boy's head. Ken groaned and pushed the man's hand away. "Okay, enough, geez..."

Barney smirked and wrote something down on a piece of paper. "Here." Tearing the paper from the pad, he handed it to Ken.

"The heck is this?" Ken examined the paper.

"It's a ban notice," Barney crossed his arms over his chest. "For attacking an employee, acting up, and damaging property. You may come here to eat and enjoy the show, however, you'll be banned from playing any of the games and going on the carousel. This punishment will last for one full week."

"A WEEK?! I apologize and I still get in trouble?! What am I suppose to do for a week if I'm banned from everything?"

Barney tapped his chin, thinking for a moment. "You can still play in the Arts n' Crafts room."

"You dirty, old son of a–"

Barney took out his pen and clicked it. "You wanna go for a month, kid?" Ken glared at him for a moment, then sat back down in his seat, exhaling loudly. "Okay then. Well, enjoy the show." Walking away, Barney took one last look at Ken from over his shoulder, and headed towards the restrooms.

"That was quite a show there." Scott said with sly smirk.

"Oh hush up you." Barney said, closing the door inside the restroom. Locking the door behind him, Barney pressed his back up against the wall and closed his eyes. The image of Ken smashing the pizza in his face began playing in his mind. Anger began rising inside of Barney the more he thought of it. _Little brat! Making a fool out of me like that; I could have easily... easily..._ Barney gritted his teeth and clenched his fist. _Damn him!_

"I wonder what would it be like to twist your little neck like a chicken until it snaps!" Barney growled, slamming his fist on the stall door. 

* * *

It was around 8 o' clock when Barney and a few other employee's began putting up the chairs, ready to go home for the night. Putting up the last chair, Barney headed towards the locker room to grab a few of his things and put away his uniform. Barney groaned as he picked at the dried-up pizza sauce that clung to his uniform.

"Damn. Well luckily I'll be getting a new uniform tomorrow." Looking around the room, Barney noticed Scott was nowhere to be found. Turning towards Lawrence– who was about to leave, Barney tapped on his shoulder. "Hey, have you seen Scott?"

Lawrence shook his head. "Sorry bro, last I heard he had to help Claire with some crap, you know, manager stuff."

"Seriously," Barney sighed in annoyance. "That man... he was suppose to tell me about some spring-lock incident."

"I can tell ya about it if ya want."

In the corner of the room, a large man with sandy-brown hair was leaning against the wall. His clothes were covered oil, dirt, and sweat; in his hand was an oil covered wrench. The man strolled towards Barney and Lawrence– a big smile plastered on his face.

"So ya wanna know about the spring-lock incident, do ya? Okay, but let me warn ya, it's pretty gruesome."


	5. Chapter 3: Spring-locks

**Chapter 3: Spring-locks**

Lawrence snatched up his jacket and briskly walked towards the exit. "Yeeeeaaah... no, I don't do horror so... no... I'll see you tomorrow, Barn, have a good-night." He eyed the large man as he left the room, closing the door behind him.

Now alone, Barney stared at the large man with a look of confusion on his face. "Do I know you?" The large man scoffed slightly and raised an eyebrow.

"Ya would of if ya took the time to say hi to me this mornin'!" The man held out his hand, "the name's Roy Winchester; I'm the mechanic that fixes every dang problem around here."

Barney stared at the man's greasy, sweaty hand for a moment debating whether he should shake it or not, but not wanting to be rude, Barney smiled and shook the man's hand.

"I'm Barney Mi–"

"Yeah, yeah, I know who ya are," Roy said. "Unlike you, I actually took the time to learn people's name– especially if they're goin' to be my colleague."

"Oh, sorry." Barney said, pulling his hand away and looking at it in disgust. Grease and sweat clung to his skin as well as the faint smell of burnt rubber and oil. He wiped his hands on his pant leg trying to get the grease off his skin. Roy smirked and shook his head.

"What, can't handle a little grease? I thought ya were some sort of mechanic at the other place." Roy said

"I was– sort of," Barney said. "Even though I applied for the security guard position, I took on other jobs as well, and one of them happened to be mechanic. Lucky for them, I use to work on my father's car a lot in my youth, so there's not much of a difference between that and the animatronics. And sometimes I–"

"I didn't ask for yer backstory, pal." Roy said, holding up his hand. "Still, yer not much of a mechanic, to be honest. Maybe in one of them porno video's ya can pass for one, but in the real world, let's be honest here, ya ain't got–"

"Are you going to tell me about the incident or not, because I don't have time to sit around and be insulted!" Barney said, snatching his jacket and heading for the exit. "When you feel like talking without insulting me, you know where to find me. Until then, I wish you a good night."

Roy rolled his eyes and stepped between Barney and the exit. "Okay okay, don't get yer panties in a knot, I'll tell ya, but, uh, don't go around blabbin' it to everyone– it's company secret." Roy leaned in closer to Barney– keeping his voice to a minimal. "Back when Fredbear Diner was still a thing, two employees were horribly mangled and crushed inside the spring-lock suits. It happened so fast... I was..." Roy took a deep breath; obviously the memory still haunted the man, but Barney had to hear the rest.

"How did it happen?"

"Well," Roy cleared his throat, "the first time the suit failed, it was during some kid's party. Everythin' was goin' great, but then the suit started makin' this god-awful clickin' noise. The guy inside held out his hand while gripping at his throat with the other, begging us to help him. 'Get... me outta... this thing!' he croaked out, but as we approached him, the clickin' stopped and then... well, let's just say it took us weeks to clean all the blood off the walls."

"What about the other guy?" Barney asked

"Same way, different scenario. It was after hours and I was suppose to get the guy out, but instead... instead I decided to be an asshole and keep him inside the costume a little longer. It was funny at first; we laughed about it and exchanged some harsh words, but all in good fun. But then, it just– I don't know, we were laughin' and then I heard that clickin' noise– that damn clickin' noise.. The minute I heard it I sprang into action and began unhookin' the straps as fast as I could, but I didn't make it. The minute I pulled the last strap, blood spewed all over the place, including my mouth." Roy pursed his lips.

"Ya got any siblings?"

Barney tensed up at the question. "Yeah, a sister, but we haven't spoken or seen each other for more than ten-years. We had a falling out so we aren't close."

Roy shook his head in disappointment. "Let me tell ya somethin' son. When ya get home, make the effort to call yer sister and tell her how much ya love her. Let her know that her brother will always be there for her, because before ya know it she'll be gone. The second guy that was crushed in the suit was my younger brother. I killed my younger brother."

Barney could see tears forming in Roy's eyes. Though he didn't doubt the man's story, something seemed off. "I'm very sorry to hear that, I really am. But I don't understand, if two people were killed inside the suits, why are they still using them?"

"Money, budget reasons, sheer laziness; ya name it! This company don't care about the well-bein' of its employees, all they want is money, money, money, and more money!" Roy said, feeling slight anger rising in him. "They even refused to take responsibility for the two deaths the damn suits caused– sayin' it was the employees job to make sure the suits were 'secured.' What a load of crap; I had to literally scrap my brother's remains from the suit, just so the company wouldn't have to waste their precious money on a new one!"

"I see..." Barney said. "Still though, this seems so weird."

"What, ya don't believe me?!" Roy snapped. "I was there, I know what I saw!

"I'm not doubting your story, Roy." Barney said. "Remember, Scott's the one who–"

"Scott... yeah, okay. I forgot my story ain't valid till that lil' chicken shit opens his mouth about the incident first. Thanks for the reminder, Bumble Bee!" Roy spat, slapping Barney hard on the back and nearly knocking him over. "I told ya the whole story, but if ya don't believe me then by all means, go ask Scott. He's _obviously_ more trustworthy than I!" With those final words, Roy left the room, closing the door behind him and leaving Barney alone with many mixed emotions.

"Sheesh, what a dick. How dare that fat, greasy ape talk to me like that; where the hell does he come off?!" Barney said to nobody. "Still though, those spring-suits... I knew they were dangerous, but I had no idea they were so _deadly._ "

Putting on his jacket, Barney left the restaurant and headed home. The whole way there, his mind kept going back to Roy's story and how the establishment kept it a secret. If they were willing to go that far, what wouldn't they cover up?


	6. Chapter 4: The Great Puppeteer

**Chapter 4: The Great Puppeteer**

"Looking sharp there, buddy!"

Barney turned around to see Scott grinning at him from the entrance of the changing room. Claire had given all the security guards uniforms and Barney couldn't be happier. After yesterday's incident with Ken, he was happy to wear something that wasn't stained with pizza sauce; plus the new uniform was better looking than his old one. It was a purple suit that looked more fitted for an office job than a security guard at a pizzeria; under it was a light pinkish-purple shirt, a striped purple-pink tie, and on the front of his uniform was a golden badge that had "security" written on it. Barney smiled back at Scott and then turned back to the mirror.

"This is a pretty fancy uniform for just a security guard position, but I guess Claire wanted to go all out, huh?" Barney said as he straighten his tie. Looking back at Scott, Barney noticed he was wearing the same uniform. "Hey how come you're wearing the same uniform, aren't these only for security guards?"

"Oh, my uniform is at the cleaners so I'm using this as a back-up." Scott said.

"Ah," Barney nodded and followed Scott out of the changing room.

Walking into the Dining Area, the two men continued talking while setting up the chairs, until two large crates being hauled inside pulled their attention away. Claire walked over to the two workers and sighed the forms they handed her. Turning her attention to Scott and Barney, she cleared her throat.

"Can you two take these crates to the backroom for me?"

"Sure, but what's inside of them?" Scott asked as he grabbed the trolley.

"It's the spring-suit." Barney said flatly, approaching the crate.

Claire nodded. "Take them to the back and then remove them from the crate, we can... I don't know, use them for whatever! I guess spare parts or back-ups even. We'll see."

Both men loaded the crates onto the trolley and headed towards the backroom. All Barney could think about was what Roy had told him about the suits and how far the company was willing go to keep it a secret. Once the crates were in the backroom, Barney and Scott began the grueling task of taking them out and moving them against the wall.

"Oh," Barney put his hand over his nose, "smells like something died! These suits always had an awful stench, but it was never this bad!"

"It's probably from being boxed-up for awhile; give it a few hours to air-out, by then it should be better– if only by a little." Scott said.

Barney pursed his lips. "If you say so." Grabbing one end of the Fredbear suit, the two men were able to move it with ease. Now moving onto Spring Bonnie, they lifted the suit and placed it next to Fredbear.

"There," Scott straighten his back, "now let's get out of her and get some fresh air!"

"Agreed!" Barney said, exiting the backroom with Scoot and heading back to the Dining Area.

"Hey, what I said yesterday," Scott said, casting his eyes to the side. "About the spring-suits... I–"

"Oh that," Barney rubbed the back of his neck, "don't worry about it, Roy told me all about the gruesome deaths and the... uh, cover-ups..." Barney gave a nervous cough and shifted his eyes to the side.

"Wait, Roy? Roy Winchester, you talked with him?" Scott let out a disgusted groan. "Listen Barney, if I were you I would stay away from him, he's... well..."

"What?"

"Roy has a very ignorant view of certain people; a very ignorant and awful view..."

Realizing what Scott meant, Barney shook his head in disgust. "Why is someone like him working in this line of work if he has such a problem with people's races?"

"Trust us, we've tried firing him, but every time, he comes back. Apparently the higher-ups think Roy is a good asset and model employee. It's sickening really." Scott said.

"Good asshole is more like it." Barney said as he and Scott made their way back into the Dining Area. Looking at the time, Scott walked to the entrance and stood by the door.

"Almost opening time," Scott looked at Barney, who just nodded in response. "So... now would be a good time to go hide or something."

Barney cocked an eyebrow in confusion. "Hide; what, why?" A worried look spread across Scott's face as he held up his hand, ushering Barney towards him. Still confused, Barney walked over to Scott and leaned closer to hear what the man had to say.

"So your bully doesn't beat you up for your lunch money." A huge smile stretched across Scott's face. "If he starts bothering you let me know, we'll hide together; there's no shame in cowering."

"Oh ha ha ha you are soooooo funny!" Barney said rolling his eyes. "Besides, that freaking kid blind-sided me. Today I am more prepared, and if he tries anything, I'll just sit on him; problem solved."

Scott chuckled at Barney's remark. "Okay, but don't go crying for me when you're dangling from a tree branch by your underwear." Barney rolled his eyes again and shook his head; a small smile crept its way onto his face. Scott unlocked the doors and opened them, while Barney switched on the open sign. With everything set up, the two men waited for the customers to come pouring in. 

* * *

Barney walked around the restaurant, keeping a close eye on the young children as they ran in and out of the many rooms. He would follow a few children and observe them for awhile before onto other rooms; all except Prize Corner. After that incident with with Puppet, Barney usually steered-clear of that room, avoiding it as much as possible. Leaning against the wall, Barney watched as kids took off running to Pirate Cove, excited to see Foxy the Pirate perform his little act. A smile formed on the man's face just watching the children plow their way into the small room just to see see a robotic fox sing.

"Hey mister!"

Barney was snapped from his thoughts and he saw three tween girls standing outside Pirate Cove. A big smile was plastered on two of the girl's faces, while the third was struggling to cover hers up with her hands. Seeing as they caught Barney's attention, the two tweens grabbed the third girl by her arms and pointed at her.

"Our friend wants to know if you're from Pirate Cove, because you got a nice booty!"

Barney's face turned bright red, he couldn't believe what he just heard. Furrowing his brows, he started walking towards the tween girl, increasing his pace.

Noticing the man coming towards them, the two girls shoved quickly shoved the other girl forward. "Now's your chance Yasmin, here he comes!"

"You guys are the worst!" Barney was getting closer, so the young girl squeaked and sprinted after her friends. "Wait for me!"

The three girls ran into Pirate Cove giggling and shrieking. Barney stopped and just stared at the direction they went. "What the heck was that about?"

"It must be your suit; stupid girls like them always go for guys in suits– at least that's what my dad told me."

Barney turned around and looked down at the all too familiar face. Looking up and down at Barney's uniform, Ken took a bite out of his apple. "I saw a few other workers wearing the same outfit, are you in a cult or something?"

"Yes," Barney gave Ken a mischievous grin. "We live to serve our lord and master, Freddy Fazbear. Everyday we scope out new prey to sacrifice to him, his favorite are naughty children who throw temper tantrums and shove pizza in people's faces."

Ken rolled his eyes. "Relax, I'm not going to do it again, my mom and her stupid boyfriend made sure of that." Ken grabbed Barney's jacket with his free hand and started rubbing it between his fingers, feeling the material. "Tch, talk about over dressing."

"Is there something you need Ken, or are you just going to insult me?" Barney asked with slight irritation in his tone.

"I want to play on the machines." Ken said flatly.

"You're banned for a week, remember; no."

Ken stomped his foot. "Still? Come on man, don't be such a dweeb! Just let me play the games again, come on!"

"No!" Barney knelt down to Ken's level, "listen, I don't make the rules, I just enforce them." Ken looked down at his shoes with a pouty look on his face. Feeling a pinch of sympathy for the boy, Barney gently put his hand on Ken's shoulder. "Come on it's not so bad, a week will fly by in no time flat! Why not stretch your creative muscles instead? There's all sorts of fun to be had in the Arts n' Crafts room, why not give it a try?" Ken looked up at Barney and smiled– something that surprised the man.

"Okay, I'll give it a try," Ken looked at Barney's name-tag, "Barney Miles. Thanks!" Ken sprinted down the hall, ignoring Barney's correction of his name.

Sighing loudly, Barney stood up feeling a bit relieved to have finally gotten rid of the kid. He decided to check back with Scott to see if he needed any help with anything. 

* * *

Around the afternoon, Barney noticed something very strange. Kids would walk up to him and start laughing hysterically; a few even asked him to say his "catchphrase." Barney was getting fed up, so he stormed over to Scott, Melina, and Lawrence– who were also laughing.

"What the heck is going on around here?! Has everyone lost their mind or something, why are people approaching me and laughing like lunatics– you guys included, tell me."

Melina cleared her throat and slapped her hand down on Barney's shoulder. "Arts n' Crafts. You'll find your answer there."

Barney gritted her teeth and stormed down the hall to the Arts n' Crafts room. Whatever was going on there, he was going to get to the bottom of it and stop it if need be.

Arriving at the Arts n' Crafts room, Barney hid around the corner and peaked inside. What he saw made his jaw hit the floor: Ken was standing in front of a large crowd of kids that were laughing and cheering. In the boy's right hand was a hand-made puppet. The puppet had two different size googly-eyes, a purple suit with a yellow badge on the front, grayish-black hair, long, white sharp teeth, a party-favor for a tongue, and two thick angry eyebrows.

 _That brat! Is that suppose to be me? How dare he..._ Barney decided to wait and catch the boy in action before making any moves.

"Encore! Encore!" A girl cheered.

"Do the _thing_ , Ken!" Another girl cheered.

Fixing up his shirt, Ken looked at the crowd of kids and stroked his chin. "Hmm, I don't know... Jermaine, what do you think; should we give the crowd an encore or should we let our star rest?"

A dark-skinned boy stood next to Ken and looked at the crowd, taping his chin. "I'm not sure, the crowd looks happy enough, maybe they don't need–"

"HAPPY?!" Ken raised up the puppet and spoke in a dumb, raspy voice. "WHO'S HAPPY?! How dare you show happiness in MY presence; I'll have your butts on my mantle!"

Barney let out a low growl, he couldn't believe this kid; the nerve of him! Seeing as everyone was distracted, Barney sneaked into the room and hid behind one of the bins. _Your ass is mine, kid!_

"Mr. Security Man, why do you hate fun?" A little girl asked through her giggles.

Ken turned towards the girl and held the puppet up to her face. "You dare question me?! That's it, you're banned from fun; all of you!" The children began clapping and laughing loudly while cheering, "say the catchphrase! Say the catchphrase!" Ken cleared his throat and took a deep breath.

"Calm down this instance or–"

"I'LL CALL YOUR PARENTS!" The whole room roared with laughter and cheering. Though the kids were enjoying the show, Barney was seething with anger.

He needed to end this appalling show, Barney stood up and marched over to Ken. With him standing in front of the large crowd, several kids stopped laughing while other ran out in a panic. Ken was oblivious and kept up his act, throwing paper at the remaining audience while yelling "banned!"

Ken looked around and noticed his audience was starting to decrease fast. Not wanting to break out of character, Ken crossed his eyes and stuck out his tongue, continuing his act. "Hey you guys get back here this instance! Don't walk away from me, get back here!"

"Uh, Ken..." Jermaine took a few steps back and glance at Barney's face and then back at Ken. "Please stop, now..."

"I'm the eyes and ears of this place! Don't talk back to me, I'll call your parents, I'll call your parents, heck I'll even call me own!" Ken started to wiggle his tongue. "Blag blah blah, are you listening to me?!"

Jermaine leaned forward and point behind Ken. Not wanting the man to hear, he spoke in a whisper. "Psst, hey Ken, look behind you, he's right behind you man, stop..." However, Ken paid no mind to Jermaine and kept talking. Jermaine had no choice but to raise his voice.

"Turn around, Ken!"

Ken stomped his foot and glared at his friend. "Why do I–" Ken spun around and immediately tensed up. "Oh..."

Barney shook his head in disappointment and grabbed Ken by his upper arm. "Okay little man, I think you and I need to have a little chat."


	7. Chapter 5: Pirates and Maidens

**Chapter 5: Pirates and Maidens**

Ken growled as he was pulled towards Barney. He was just having fun like the man told him to have, so what was the big deal? Jermaine and another kid– a large, older boy who hadn't stopped giggling until Barney spoke– looked at each other nervously

"Uh... oh hey, I think I hear my brother calling me, uh... yeah, coming Nathaniel!" Jermaine sprinted towards the exit and shouted, "I'll see you later, dude!"

The last boy followed after Jermaine, leaving Ken alone with Barney. The two stayed in awkward silence for a moment; honestly, Barney really didn't know what to do. This kid was really driving his patience to the breaking point.

"Ken I– what is that?"

Hanging on the wall with the other drawings was a crudely drawn picture of Barney with long angry eyebrows, sharp teeth, and the words "Big stupid meanie" at the top. Barney tore down the drawing and held it up to Ken's face.

"I realized I never had any of my drawings hung up, so I decided to do it myself– no need to thank me."

Barney growled at the boy and exhaled loudly. "You... I don't... what's your problem, kid, why do you hate me, huh?" Ken glared at the man and stuck out his bottom lip. Crossing his arms over his chest, he scoffed at Barney and turned on his heels.

"Hey!" Barney grabbed Ken's arm and pulled him closer. Just staring at this boy's bratty face was making his blood boil. Something about this boy was very familiar to him and he didn't like it. Ken started to whine loudly and struggle in the man's grasp.

"Let go of me!"

"Not until you answer me!"

"I don't hate you, okay! I... I hate what you are: an adult– a lying, cheating, stinking adult." Ken turned his head away and gritted his teeth. "All adults do is lie and act like they know what's best, but they don't; they don't know. Adults think kids are stupid– that they don't know what's going on... but we do, ya know?"

Barney stared at the boy with a concern, but puzzled look on his face. This kid was really giving him a headache, he didn't know whether to comfort the boy or shake him like a maraca. Either way, he had to do something.

"Ken, I–"

"Um hey, Barney," a waitress ran into the room with a worried look plastered on her face. "We have a situation in Pirate Cover and uh, i–it's not pretty."

Nodding his head towards the waitress, Barney smiled at Ken and held out his hand. "Hey Ken, how's about you come with me? Come on, you can be my back-up."

Ken looked at Barney's hand for a moment, debating whether to take the man up on his offer or not. With nothing better to do, Ken begrudgingly took Barney's hand and nodded.

"That's the spirit!" Barney said. "Come on, let's go see what's happening in Pirate Cove."

* * *

Pirate Cove was in nothing short, but disarray. Two young boys had managed to to get on stage and deactivate Foxy, and refused to turn him back on until their demands were met.

"Get off the stage, Samuel!" A young tween girl yelled.

A red-headed boy with waist-length hair, thick square glasses, and a pirate looking outfit, jumped up and pointed his sword at the girl's face. "Argh, that be Capt. Samuel to ye, wench! Ye be best to remember that!"

The girl growled and slapped the wooden sword away from her face. "Samuel, I swear to God, if you point that thing at me one more time, I'm going to shove my foot up your–"

"Silence wench!" The other boy said. "If ye want the fox to sing again, ye must give us," the boy whispered something to Samuel, and in return Samuel smiled and nodded. "Five-hundred dollars!"

The girl snorted in response. "Play in traffic, _puto_. I ain't giving you a cent!"

"Come on, Marina, don't be be like that! Just give Conner and me some money, and we'll leave you alone." Samuel said. Looking at the other boy, Conner nodded his head in agreement.

"Y-yeah! Besides, we know you and your cousin over there are loaded, so a few hundred shouldn't be a lot!" Conner said, brushing some of his bangs out of his eyes.

Turning to her three friends, Marina pointed at the two boys. "Mia, Amber; you two take care of the sheep dog. Yasmin, you and I will handle Samuel. Come on girls, let's get them!"

Leaping on stage, Mia and Amber grabbed Conner by his shirt and threw him down on the floor. With one problem solved, Marina and Yasmin lunged at Samuel and grabbed him by his hair and shirt.

"Hey!" Samuel swung his sword and hit Yasmin in the face. With the girl stunned, Samuel pushed her back, knocking her off stage.

"Yasmin! That's it you gap-tooth freak, no one pushes my cousin and gets away with it!" Marina wrapped one arm around Samuel's neck, putting him in a head-lock and began punching him on the head.

"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!"

Barney stood at the entrance of Pirate Cove, baffled at the scene before him: One boy was lying on the ground crying, while two of the tweens from earlier were hovering above him with their fist high in the air. The other tween was also on the ground quietly sobbing and holding her cheek. On stage was a red-headed boy in a head-lock, while a fourth tween girl was punching him. Barney furrowed his brows and glared at the five children.

"Mind telling me what is going on here? Why are you two on stage and why is Foxy deactivated?"

Ken poked his head into the room and whistled loudly. ""Whoa, it's like Wrestlemania in here!" A huge smile was plastered on the boy's face as he observed the chaos.

Barney groaned and rubbed his temple. "Ken, do me a favor and take these two injured kids to the other security guard–"

"I don't need some baby to be my escort!" Yasmin stood up abruptly and left the room with her two friends quickly following after. Conner slowly stood up and followed Ken out, leaving Barney alone with the two kids on stage.

Samuel managed to break free of Marina's grasp and gasp, trying to catch his breath. "This crazy broad tried killing me! Lock her up and throw away the key!"

"Liar, you hurt my cousin, I was just defending her! He started it first!" Marina said, pointing her finger at Samuel.

"I don't care who started it because I'm ending it." Barney walked on stage and grabbed both kids by their wrist. The two kids had no choice but to follow the man off stage and out of Pirate Cove.

* * *

Barney hated how hot and stuffy the back offices were, and never understood why they couldn't install an AC unit, but right now he had more pressing matters to attend to. Pointing to the two chairs in front of the desk, Barney told the two kids to take a seat. Walking around the desk, Barney sat in his own seat and stared at the two children before him.

"Okay, explain yourselves."

Both children began yelling their side of the story simultaneously, while arguing with each other. Barney held up his hands and waved them frantically.

"One at a time! One at a time! Young lady, I'll let you go first, now tell me what happened."

Marina smoothed out her dress and looked at Barney with big, sad puppy-eyes. "My friends and I were just minding our own business, when Raggedy Ann and his side-kick, Raggedy Andy, barged into Pirate Cove and started messing with Foxy! We tried stopping them, but then they started demanding money from my cousin and me!"

"I see." Barney looked at Samuel, "is this true?"

"Hardly! Well, sorta..." Samuel growled and crossed his arms. "Yes, but only because my cousin and I– well, mostly me– wanted some money, and us being pirates and all knew this wench and her friends had plenty of booty to go around."

"Eat a tampon, Samuel!"

"Enough, both of you!" Barney said, raising his voice. "Listen, you're both in serious trouble for the stunts you pulled. Especial you, Samuel, for messing with the animatronic. You could have been seriously injured."

Marina shot Samuel a smug grin, which did not go unnoticed by Barney. "I wouldn't be so smug, little girl. I saw you beating Samuel up– that's assault, another thing this establishment frowns upon.

Both kids looked at each other and then lowered their heads, no longer daring to meet Barney's piercing eyes. Seeing as there was nothing more to be said, Barney grabbed the telephone and cleared his throat.

"Right then. As much as I hate doing this, I think your parents should be aware of your offences."

Samuel and Marin'as eyes widened. "Our parents?!" Both kids leaned over the desk, pleading to the man not to. Barney furrowed his brow and simple shook his head.

Realizing the man wasn't going to be easily persuaded, Marina decided to pull out her secret weapon. Getting up from her seat, she walked around the desk and hoisted herself up on Barney's lap. She gave him her most cutest smile and began messing with his name tag. "Listen Barnabas, you may not know this, but I come from a pretty high family. Ever heard of the Câmara family; well I just so happened to be a part of it! That's right, you are talking to the one and only: Marina Inés Câmara!"

Barney was speechless at this point. All he could do was stare at the little girl sitting on his lap innocently, swinging her legs back and forth and smiling proudly at her own statement. Smiling at the girl, Barney decided to have some fun with this.

"Câmara; the Câmara! Wow, I don't believe it, your mom is that famous judge and your father owns that car dealership chain, right? Oh wow, um," Barney grabbed a pen and a small slip of paper. "Can you sign this please?"

Marina happily signed the paper and smiled up at the man. Barney returned the girl's smile and picked up the telephone. "Well now that you made my job easier by signing your own ban notice, let's call up your parent, shall we? Your mom is probably tied-up in court cases, so let's give your dad a ring, I'm sure he wouldn't mind coming down here."

Marina's jaw hit the floor; how could he have tricked her like that and call her parents, despite the fact she turned on her adorable charm. This called for drastic measures.

Disconnecting the phone line, Marina wrapped one arm around Barney's neck. "Whoa whoa whoa, let's not do something we'll regret! Listen, you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. So," Marina dug in her purse and pulled out a giant wad of cash. Counting the bills, Marina held up five-dollars to Barney's face.

"Just let it slide and this will be all yours."

"He's not a prostitute, Marina. You can't just buy him off!" Samuel said scoffing at Marina's attempts.

"Quiet!" Marina hissed. "So, do we have a deal?" She slowly slid the money into Barney's shirt pocket and leaned her head on his shoulder.

Barney stared at Marina in silence for a moment. A smile began to form on his face, he couldn't believe the nerve of this girl, trying to buy him off with a mere five-dollars. Barney bit his lower lip, trying to stifle his chuckling, but the more he looked at Marina and her proud smile, the harder it was to contain his laughter. Unable to take it anymore, Barney let out a roaring laugh that took both kids by surprise.

"What's so funny?" Marina's face turned a bright red color and she puffed out her cheeks. "I-I'm serious! Stop laughing, I mean it!"

Tears rolled down Barney's cheeks as he continued laughing. Wiping them away, he gave Marina her money back and took her off his lap. He held his chest and tried to calm himself down.

"Sorry, it's just..." Barney cleared his throat, "okay tell you what, I won't call your parents– this time, but if you two a stunt like this again, I won't be so lenient, clear?"

Both kids nodded their heads, happy to not have their parents involved. Barney took out a second ban noticed and handed it to Samuel. "No games or carousel for two weeks. You can still come for the show and you can play in the Arts n' Crafts room, okay?"

Marina pouted and glared at Barney, but nodded. Samuel nodded to, but stopped when he took a look at his ban notice.

"You said two-weeks, but my slip says a month."

"Yes. That's for messing with the animatronic." Barney answered.

Samuel opened his mouth and frowned. "Marina punched me and she only gets two-weeks? No fair!"

"Well she made me laugh." Barney lead the two kids to the exit.

Samuel looked up at Barney and smiled. "If it's a joke you want, I'm chalk full of 'em! Okay, a hooker and a madam walk into a bar–"

"I changed my mind; six months, now get lost." Barney smiled and watched the two kids argue with each other as they walked down the hallway. Chuckling, Barney leaned against the desk and let out a sigh. Truly, this was the best career choice he's ever made. "Well, I better get back to work and maybe see if those two other kids are alright."


	8. Chapter 6: Sweet Offerings

**Chapter 6: Sweet Offerings**

"Are you sure this is a good idea, what if we get caught?"

It was in the late hours of the day, so the restaurant was getting ready to close. A young boy and girl walked through the hallway down to Prize Corner. Looking back at the boy, the girl smiled.

"You don't have to do this, I really don't want to get you in trouble. I know you hate lying, but I know you will just to protect me." The girl turned and placed a gentle hand on the boy's shoulder. "Nathaniel, I don't want to force you to do something you're not comfortable with."

"No it's fine, I want to do this. I'm not going anywhere except Prize Corner with you."

The girl blushed and looked down. "I'm glad to hear that." The two kids entered Prize Corner and stared at the Music Box. "Nathaniel," holding out her arm, the girl spoke in a serious, low voice.

"Whatever you see here you must promise not to tell anyone, okay? I know it shouldn't matter since most kids at school already label me a freak, but this is different."

"Michelle," Nathaniel took the girl's hand and gave her a reassuring smile. "I know how passionate you are about this stuff, so it means a lot that you trust me with your secret." Nathaniel could feel his face heat up as Michelle placed her other hand on his. Nodding in acceptance, she approached the Music Box

Michelle took off her backpack and set it down on the nearby table. Opening it, she took out a foam plate covered in plastic-wrap and a fork. She carefully took the plastic off the plate revealing a wide variety of sweets from cookies, brownies, cupcakes, and a big slice of cake. Nathaniel let out a small "ooo" when he saw the packed plate of sweets. Michelle turned to Nathaniel and smiled.

"Okay, you ready?"

Nathaniel nodded in response, giving the girl the okay. Michelle knocked twice on the Music Box and whistled a small tune. The Music Box began to played its melody and out came the Puppet. Michelle smiled and gave the Puppet a kiss on the forehead. "Bonjour Bebe, I hope you're doing well. Here, I brought you some sweets from the bakery." Michelle held up the plate and watched as the Puppet took hold of the dish. Still standing at the entrance, Nathaniel's jaw was nearly on the floor. Michelle was controlling the Puppet, but how was still a mystery.

With the plate in hand, the Puppet reached out its free hand to Michelle and dropped a piece of paper in hers. The Music Box began to play its tune again and with that, the Puppet descended back into the box.

"Don't forget your fork!" Michelle said quickly dropping the fork inside the box.

Nathaniel ran up to Michelle and grabbed her shoulders. "Whoa! I didn't know you could control the Puppet, how did you do that?!"

Michelle shook her head and looked at the folded paper the Puppet had handed her. "I didn't control anyone, Nathaniel. This isn't just an animatronic, it's a lost soul... several months ago, she began talking to me through note correspondence." Michelle's expression became worried.

"A few times she has tried talking to me without notes, but all I hear is static. She was trying to tell me her real name, but all I heard was a barely audible 'be' sound. Recently, Bebe's messages have been cryptic, like she's trying to tell me something. It's really scaring me, but I have to know what I can do." Michelle looked at Nathaniel. "I'm sure you think I'm nuts, huh?"

"No, not at all. It's true I'm a little skeptical about hauntings, but stranger things have happened." Nathaniel smiled at Michelle and looked at the folded piece of paper. "So what does the note say?"

Michelle unfolded the note and read the message. "What... is this..." Her hands gripped the paper tightly– almost tearing it. Nathaniel looked at Michelle and carefully took the paper slip from her hands.

Nathaniel swallowed the growing lump in his throat and read the note. "'Three have crossed the demon's path. Beware the man in... hides in shadows... the demon in...' I can't read the rest. Goodness, is this why you've been on edge lately? Geez..." Nathaniel folded the note and gave it back to Michelle. "What does she mean by 'the demon.' The demon what?"

"I don't know, but– wait, listen." The two kids could hear the sound of a bell playing through the whole restaurant. Nathaniel looked at his watch and showed the time to Michelle. She hadn't realized it was closing time already.

"Come on." Michelle grabbed her backpack and Nathaniel's hand. A large group of kids walked past Prize Corner, laughing and talking. Seeing the opportunity, Michelle and Nathaniel walked into the crowd of kids and disappeared.

* * *

"Gotdammit not again! FUCK!"

It was the early morning hours when Roy was heard shouting and swearing at the top of his lungs. Scott walked into the room and saw Roy with half of his body inside the Music Box.

"What's wrong?" Scott asked, though he had a pretty good idea what it was.

"What do ya think?!" Roy held up a dessert covered Puppet. "This is the billionth time this has happened! Fuck this is gettin' annoyin'; who keeps doin' this?!"

"Maybe the Puppet got hungry and got itself a midnight snack." Barney yawned, leaning against the entrance frame and taking a sip from his mug.

Roy shot Barney an ugly glare and then turned back to the Music Box. "For the past several months, some little shit has been puttin' food and utensils inside the dang box; ruinin' the machine and making my job harder."

"That's unusual," Barney approached the Music Box and took took a peak inside. The whole inside was covered in different pastries; the gears were clogged up with what looked like cake, and lodge deep within the smaller gears was a fork. Barney looked over at the Puppet, which was slumped next to the box. "Eh, I never realized how tall the Puppet actually was... creepy..." Barney lifted the Puppet up and examined its dessert-covered face.

"When I find out who the little punk is, I'm gonna beat their ass down!" Roy growled.

"Now hold on, you can't go around beating up kids!" Scott said.

"Exactly," Barney chimed in. "Look, how about we check the video feed? Surely the camera caught something.

Barney left Prize Corner and headed down towards the back office. Melina sat behind the desk, sipping her coffee and typing away on the computer. A smile formed on her face when she saw Barney approaching her desk.

"Morning, what can I do ya for?"

"Morning, Mel; say you wouldn't happen to have the video feed from Prize Corner, would you? Apparently someone has been stuffing food in the Music Box."

"I see. That explains why Roy's been yelling his lungs out. Melina said while pulling up the video feed. "Ah, here we go! Now let's see who the culprit is!"

Barney and Melina watched the tape, waiting to see anything out of the ordinary. So far nothing of interest popped up, but then something caught both guards attention.

"Did you see that?" Melina asked.

"Yeah; rewind for a moment."

Melina rewinded the tape and slowed it down a bit. Both guards held their breaths as the tape played. Barney looked at Melina wide-eyed as an image flashed on the screen. Melina returned the look and swallowed. "Go get Claire and Scott, they need to see this."

* * *

"Okay, so what am I missing here?"

Claire titled her head and tapped her chin. She paused the tape and stared at Barney and Melina.

"Claire, don't you see it?" Barney played the tape and slowed it down. Claire leaned forward closer to the screen and waited. Suddenly an image flashed on screen that nearly made Claire jump out of her skin.

"What was that?"

"That's not even the weird part," Melina rewinded the tape once again and slowed it down a bit more. "Look at the time frame. The tape plays normally until it hits 8:45 pm. After that, the tape skips to 9:10 pm."

"Okay I see that, but what was that image?" Claire asked.

"Well..." Barney typed something into the computer which made the tape go frame-by-frame. With it more slower, everyone was able to see what the image was: Obscuring the camera's view for those missing twenty-five minutes, was the Puppet itself. Barney could feel a chill going down his spine just looking at it.

"It seems our little sweet-tooth culprit has some mad hacking skills. "Scott said furrowing his brows.

"Or the Puppet's a demon." Barney mumbled.

"This is so freaky! The camera's are set to move around, that way we capture every corner of the room– to a certain degree– but no matter which way it turns, there's the Puppet. It's almost like it's clinging onto the camera itself, but why?" Melina bit down on her thumbnail, trying to figure out how this was possible.

Barney turned off the tape and sighed. "Well it seems the tape won't be of any use, so how are we going to capture our sticky-finger culprit?"

Easy," Melina smiled, "a good old-fashion stake out!"

"Stake out?" Everyone said at once. Scott looked at Claire and shrugged his shoulders.

"Couldn't hurt. If we can't rely on tapes then having someone stationed at Prize Corner will be the next best thing."

"True, but who will do it?" Claire said shifting her eyes between Melina and Barney. Melina mostly stays in the back office checking video feed, while Barney was more of the "hands-on" guy when it came to the customers, especially the children. Claire smiled and patted Barney's back. "Congratulations Barney, you've been promoted to Bond-status; your mission is to stake-out Prize Corner and find the culprit!"

Barney pursed his lips and bit the inside of his cheek. He wasn't fond of the idea of spending all day in a room with that creepy puppet, but he wasn't going let that thing scare him away. After all, it was just an animatronic, right?

Barney turned towards Claire and Scott, and nodded. "Don't worry, I'll catch them! You can count on me."


	9. Chapter 7: Prize Corner Stakeout

**Chapter 7: Prize Corner Stakeout**

Sitting in Prize Corner with only his thoughts was actually pretty calming for Barney. Because the children had school to go to, the majority of the customers were young adults and toddlers. Even though it was nice to get off his feet, Barney was starting to get bored just sitting in the semi-quiet room. Whoever the culprit is, Barney was hoping they show up soon; that way he could walk around the restaurant again. He did enjoy watching the smaller children run around innocently in Prize Corner, but he was starting to get a headache from all the high-pitch screaming the kids were doing every time the Puppet popped out of its box.

It was around noon time when Barney was starting to get hungry. As much as he would love to, he knew he couldn't leave his post. He had to stay and ignore his hunger. Barney groaned and gripped his stomach. _Maybe just a quick run..._ Barney thought. _But if the culprit comes while I'm gone..._

"Crap this is such a pain," Barney looked at the Puppet that was staring at him. "Hey, got any sweets in there?"

"I doubt he does, but I got something that'll hold you off."

Barney saw the plate of food that was held up in front of his face and gratefully took it. "Thank you– hey, aren't you..."

Flashing a wide toothy-grin, Samuel plopped down next to Barney. "Howdy! How come you're here and not walking around the joint?"

"Why am I here– why are you here, aren't you suppose to be in school?" Barney asked with a raised eyebrow.

"School's really been riding me, so I'm taking the day off." Samuel stretched and wrapped one arm around Barney's neck. "I figured I should unwind at my favorite place, but since everyone is at school I have no one to hang out with. So I decided to come find you instead!" Samuel smiled at the man.

"So what are we doing today, pal?"

Barney slowly chewed his pizza and removed Samuel's arm from around him. " _I'm_ trying to catch the little sneak who keeps stuffing pastries inside the Music Box. _You_ on the other hand should get your behind back to school."

"Relax Mr. M, it's all good. Whatever I miss I'll just make it up. Besides, I'm the smartest kid in the whole school. Samuel stated proudly. "Yup. Even skipped a few grades, believe it or not."

Barney sighed and finished off the last of his food. Setting the plate down, he cast a sideways glance at Samuel. The boy smiled up at the man and quietly hummed Foxy's theme song. _This boy is so vulnerable... so trusting– naive even. Such childish curiosity..._ Barney felt his stomach heat up the more he thought about it. The boy was so scrawny, that all he had to do was squeeze him tightly and all of his bones would be crushed in an instance.

The thought made Barney smile.

"Umm Mr. Miles?"

"Hmm?" Barney snapped out of his thoughts and realized he was twirling a lock of the boy's hair around his finger. "Oh, I'm sorry, I uh, got a bit distracted... hehe..." Samuel chuckled and scratched his cheek with his finger, blushing slightly. Barney coughed nervously and quickly changed the subject.

"Say, you spend a lot of time here; have you seen anything– or rather _anyone_ – suspicious coming into Prize Corner?"

"Hmm now that you've mentioned it, I have noticed a strange girl hanging around here usually around closing time. But I've also seen her at the early hours as well." Samuel said sitting up and stretching. "I once saw her talking to the Puppet– it was really weird."

"Do you know what she looks like?" Barney asked.

"Kinda," Samuel held a finger to his chin, trying to recall the girl's appearance. "She has long blonde hair and a chubby face– despite the fact she's skinny. And she has these weird thick, oddly shaped eyebrows and three feathered pieces of hair on top of her head."

"I see." Now that Barney had a small description of a suspect, he could find them and give them the proper punishment. Glancing over at Samuel, an idea popped into Barney's head. "Samuel, I want you to go back to school," Samuel was about to interrupt, but Barney held up his hand. "I want you to go back and do some detective work for me. You know, see if anyone else has seen this girl or anything else that could help solve this case. Can you do that for me?"

Samuel's face lit up and he eagerly jumped up and down. "Y-Yes or course, you can count on me!" Samuel picked up his backpack and dashed out of the room.

Barney put his hand on his face and stroked his chin. _A little girl with a chubby face, weird thick-eyebrows, and three feathered pieces of hair... with a description like that, she should be easy to find._

* * *

Around three o' clock is when the restaurant became more lively. Kids were getting out of school and were coming there to unwind and forget about their troubles. Returning from his bathroom break, Barney walked back to Prize Corner and looked around for any signs of Samuel or the mystery girl. But seeing as Prize Corner was packed with kids, he decided to ask around and see if maybe other kids knew who she was. So far none of the kids really knew her, though some have said they've seen her around. At this point, Barney had no other leads to go by. He made a poorly drawn sketch of the girl from descriptions he was given to see if maybe other kids would recognize her, but he was mostly met with rude remarks about his art skills.

"I need a drink." Barney made his way to the employee lounge and got himself a bottle of water. Heading back to Prize Corner, Barney heard someone shouting his name from behind.

"MR. MIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLES!"

A sharp pain passed through his body as something slammed into his back and knocked him over. Turning his head around, Barney saw a certain red-headed boy sitting on his back. "Samuel, are you you crazy?!" Barney rolled over and sat up, knocking the boy off of him. "You could have killed me, don't ever do that again!"

"I-I'm sorry!" Samuel started rubbing Barney's back, trying to sooth the pain. "Can you stand?"

Barney gritted his teeth expecting to feel pain, but surprisingly he was alright. "You better have something good to tell me that was worth almost breaking my back."

"I do! So I went to school asking about the girl and wouldn't you know it, her sister was actually the first person I asked!" Samuel stood up and pulled out a flyer with a family standing in front of a bakery on it. "Her name is Michelle DuBois; her family owns that small bakery downtown. According to Michelle's sister, she's been sneaking plates full of pastries out of the bakery."

Barney examined the flyer and slowly nodded his head. Sure enough, the girl in the flyer matched the description of what Samuel and the other kids had told him. If she really is the culprit, then he could catch her and return to his normal duties. Barney ruffled Samuel's hair and smiled. "You're a life-saver, Samuel! Thank you for helping me."

Samuel chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck. "C'mon you're making me blush, you big goof!" Barney and Samuel's moment was cut short when a loud scream echoed through the hall.

"That sounded like a girl's scream– hey Mr. Miles, wait!"

Barney dashed back to Prize Corner and was shocked at the scene before him: Roy was red in the face _–_ breathing hard with one hand in the air, while the other was gripping the wrist of none other than Michelle DuBois.


	10. Chapter 8: Out of Order

**Chapter 8: Out of Order**

"Let me go, I wasn't doing anything wrong!" Michelle shrieked. She pulled away, but Roy's grip became tighter. "Ow, stop please!"

"Let her go, you're hurting her!" Nathaniel yelled, pulling on Roy's shirt.

Roy spun around and slapped the boy across the face. "Ya hush up now, ya hear? This is between me and Frenchy!" Roy turned his attention back to Michelle– who was glaring daggers at him.

"How dare you hit Nathaniel, you pig-headed fiend!" Michelle snapped. Before she could say anything else, Roy slapped her across the face, causing tears to roll down her cheek. Desperate, Michelle looked around for anything to help her when suddenly, her eyes locked onto Barney.

Barney could see the desperation in Michelle's eyes, begging him for help. He nodded to Michelle and stormed over to Roy, grabbing his free hand before he could hit her again. "What the hell are you doing, Roy?"

"Oh hey, Bee, I noticed ya left Prize Corner, so I decided to be watch till ya came back and wouldn't ya know it, I caught the lil' culprit!" Roy pointed at a smashed plate full on pastries on the ground. "She was about to dump food in the Music Box. But don't worry, I'll give her a proper thrashin'!" Roy's grip tighten on Michelle's arm, causing her to howl in pain.

"Roy, enough, you're hurting her!" Barney knew Roy wasn't going to let go, so he did the only thing he could. "I said stop!" Barney rammed as hard as he could against Roy– stunning him and causing his grip on Michelle to loosen. Barney quickly grabbed Michelle and pulled her away from the larger man.

"Hey!" Roy reached out to grab her again, but Barney stepped between the two, blocking him from Michelle. The two men glared at each other for awhile, until Roy smirked and shook her head.

"Dang, yer one tough S.O.B. ya know that? Fine, she's yer problem now. I have more important things to take care of." Before leaving, Roy took one last look at Michelle and said, "go back to France if ya wanna stuff pastries in everything."

"Asshole." Barney mumbled. He then shifted his attention to Michelle and Nathaniel. Michelle looked up and noticed Barney staring at her, so she quickly took hold of Nathaniel's hand and bolted for the exit. However, Barney was faster and managed to block the two kids from leaving. "Michelle, I presume?" Barney could see the fear on the girl's face as he approached her. The closer he got to Michelle, the more tense and scare she became; that sight alone made Barney's stomach heat up with joy and pleasure. He reached out his hand to touch Michelle's face, but was slapped away by Nathaniel.

"Listen, sir, we're very sorry for what we've done, and I'll even pay for any damages. So please don't–"

"Relax, I just want to see her wounds and yours as well." Barney said, taking hold of the two kids. Nathaniel had a light red mark on his cheek; while Michelle had red marks on her wrist and upper arm, a slightly swollen cheek, and a scrapped knee. Barney lightly press his hand on Michelle's cheek, only to quickly retract it when she hissed in pain.

"Um... if, um... don't punish Nathaniel, he had nothing to do with this!" Michelle exclaimed. "Just... don't be mad at us."

Barney picked up the smashed plate of sweets and sighed. Tossing it into the trash, he crouched down to the kids level. "I'm not mad at you. If anything, I'm just mad that I didn't think about dressing up as the Marionette and hiding in the Music Box. I could have had me some free desserts!" Barney laughed, slapping his knee. Nathaniel gave a small pity-laugh, while Michelle frowned. Noticing the kids reaction, Barney's smile slowly faded. He stood up and cleared his throat. "Listen you two, I don't know what your reason is for doing this, but I want it to stop. Just because the Marionette is skinny, doesn't mean it needs to eat, got it?"

"Yes sir." Nathaniel said solemnly. Michelle opened her mouth to protest, but then decided against it. Taking hold of Nathaniel's hand once again, the two kids headed for the exit. As they were leaving, Michelle was nearly hit in the face with a wooden sword. She took a step back and glared at the boy holding it.

"Not so fast, Sweet-Tooth! I'm making a citizen's arrest, so you'd be wise to– hey!" Michelle knocked the sword from Samuel's hand and left Prize Corner with Nathaniel. Samuel picked up his sword and ran up to Barney with a big smile on his face. "I saw you take down that big guy; man, you are so cool! That guy could have easily crushed you, but you were all, "step off, punk,' and bam! You're amazing, Mr. M.!"

Barney placed one hand on his hip and ran the other through his hair. "It could've gone better..."

"I agree." Melina said, propping her elbow against the wall and motioning to Barney with her hand. "Claire and Scott want to talk to you, it's urgent."

"I'll be right there." Barney waved goodbye to Samuel and followed Melina out of Prize Corner

* * *

The back office was filled with the angry shout between Roy and Melina. Even though Barney was irritated, he didn't want to waste his energy shouting. He had other things on his mind, like Michelle's frighten reaction and the hopelessness her friend showed when trying to protect her. Just replaying the scene in his mind was giving him butterflies. Barney was pulled out of his thoughts when Roy slammed his fist on the table and pointed a finger at him.

"He shouldn't have left his post!" Roy exclaimed.

"You shouldn't have been there in the first place!" Barney snapped back.

"Geez Roy, what the hell is wrong with you?" Scott asked. "Do you know how much trouble you put us in? What does this say about us: 'Hey, come to Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria if you want an ass whooping!' Their parents might even sue us because of you!"

Roy didn't bother to hide his smug grin and simply scoffed at Scott's remark. "Yer all overreactin'. All I did was fix our lil' problem, why are ya gettin' on my case about it?"

"Because you hit those kids!" Melina snapped.

Roy huffed and rolled his eyes. "They'll live."

"I've heard enough." Claire said, taking out a pink slip. "You really know how to dig yourself in a hole, dont'cha Roy?"

"So we're doin' this song and dance again? Okay, sure boss, whatever ya say. I'll probably see ya fellers Monday." Roy said, taking the pink slip and shoving it into his pocket. With a wave of his hand, he walked out the door chuckling.

"One of these days I'm going to ram Foxy's hook up his ass, and string him up like a slab of pig meat." Melina grumbled under her breath.

Barney pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes– letting out a loud sigh. "This has been one eventful day, I'm tired as hell."

Scott chuckled and patted Barney's back. "Don't throw in the towel just yet, we still have other problems to deal with. For instance, the animatronics have been bugging out more than usual."

"What do you mean?" Barney asked.

Leading Barney out of the room, Scott pointed at the stage where pure pandemonium was breaking loose. Freddy's head was tilted back and jerking from side-to-side; Chica's eyes were rolling around violently in her head, while also emitting a low, static, groaning noise; Finally, Bonnie was flailing his guitar around, before breaking it over Chica's head.

"Goodness!" Barney could see employees rushing under the stage, trying to stop the rampaging animatronics. "I think we'll need an exorcist to deal with this problem."

"Yeah well, you should have seen Foxy earlier– it was not pretty. But with Roy gone, it's up to us to deal with the animatronics. After all, we both have a pretty long history when it comes to fixing these guys." Scott said.

"Great. The only mechanic gets the boot and leaves us with the smelly, sweating robots. How wonderful." Barney said sarcastically. He didn't mind being a temporary mechanic, but those robots were just as gross as the Spring-suits in the back. Moist, sticky, smelly– Barney really hated going near them for those reason.

"I know what you mean, but don't worry. We're having a meeting tomorrow morning discussing the fate of these animatronics. Claire says she has something big to announce." Scott said.

"Good," Barney sighed, "well let's go salvage what's left from this mess."

"Lead the way, friend."

* * *

The next morning, everyone arrived to work earlier than usual because of the meeting Claire had issued the day before. All the employees walked into the break room where Claire was leaning against the counter, sipping her coffee. "I know you all hate being here earlier than you have to, but with all the recent events, I had to call an emergency meeting."

Groans of agreement and exhaustion filled the room with each employee taking their seat or filling their mugs. With everyone present, Claire continued. "As you may have heard, Roy Winchester assaulted two kids yesterday. I don't know what their parents will do– if the two kids even told them– but as of right now, Mr. Winchester is no longer working for us. And hopefully it'll stay that way, unless the higher ups decided against it...well anyways, onto our second agenda: the animatronics. It seems equipping them with the upgraded software really burned out their servos, so we will not be using them anymore."

"So what do we do without the main attractions?" Barney asked. "Freddy and his band were the only things keeping the younger kids under control, and I highly doubt playing the Fredbear and Friend's cartoon will make a suitable replacement."

"You're right, it won't. Which is why we'll be receiving brand new, redesigned animatronics! Claire exclaimed happily. "And not only will they be equipped with the newest software, they'll have a more kid-friendly appearance, so now we don't have to hear anymore complaints from angry parents about how scary Foxy looks!"

"Fantastic. When can we expect these new animatronics?" Barney asked.

"Three weeks to a month. So in the meantime we'll be closing down the restaurant." Claire said. The room filled up with concern and panic responses regarding the news. Claire raised up her hands and tried to calm the nervous workers. "Calm down, everyone. No one is losing their job. In addition to the new animatronics, the higher-ups want to remodel the restaurant a bit, so you guys will be helping out with the renovations"

"Shouldn't they hire professionals for this?" Melina asked.

"Yeah, I don't think any of us are licence contractors." Lawrence added.

"Don't worry, you guys will just be doing the small stuff, like removing the drawings from the walls, taking down the old posters, doing inventory work, etc. The company is sending over some men to begin on the renovations later on today, so I need you guys to get started." Claire said. "Alright everyone, let's get to work, we have a long day ahead of us!"


	11. Chapter 9: Grand Reopening Part I

**Chapter 9: Grand Reopening part. I**

"Come on, guys, let's sit in the front row," Marina said to her friends, setting her stuff down and taking her seat.

Today was the restaurant's grand reopening; the place was packed with children, excited to see the new animatronics. Because of their toy-like appearance, the restaurant decided to dub them the "toy animatronics." Setting down their bags on the ground and their food tray on the table, Marina's three friends, Amber, Mia, and Yasmin took their seats next to her.

"Man, I can't believe we managed to find a table, considering how packed this place is," Mia said, looking around the room.

"Yeah, and just to see the new animatronics perform," Amber added.

"Animatronics that my uncle help made possible," Marina said, grinning. "Aren't you excited to see them, Yas?"

"Not really," Yasmin said. "My interest is in something else."

"Oh, like what?" Marina asked. "What's more important than seeing the new animatronics?"

"My honey bunny, Mr. Miles, of course!" Yasmin said, getting a strange look from Marina. Clasping her hands together, she smiled. "He is so dreamy— those beautiful blue eyes, his incredible physic, that voice that could melt butter, those soft lips— I'm going to marry him someday."

"That's what you said about the last guy," Amber said.

"Yeah, but he's married, Mr. Miles isn't— he doesn't have a wedding ring on!" Yasmin took a sip of her drink and mumbled, "now I just need a lock of his hair..."

Marina smirked and rolled her eyes. Ignoring the rest of Yasmin's rambling, she sighed and looked around the room. Mostly everything was the same, except the posters, which now featured the toy animatronics. Looking down at the activity map, the only significant difference Marina could see was that the Arts n' Crafts room got taken out and made a part of the new Pirate's Cove, now called Kid's Cover. _It's pretty dumb that they closed for a month, and barely anything's changed— not that it's a bad thing._

"Hey!"

Marina was pulled from her thoughts when she felt someone bump into her table. Looking up, she saw her friends glaring at two young boys.

"Watch where you're going, kid!" Yasmin snapped.

"Don't have a cow, lady, it was an accident, geez!" Ken snapped. "Besides, your stupid bag was in my way; that's why I tripped."

"If you saw her bag, then why didn't you avoid it?" Amber asked.

"We did, but her big feet kicked it at us!" Jermaine said.

"What did you say, you little punks!" Yasmin exclaimed, shooting up from her seat along with Amber and Mia, glaring at the two boys.

Ken and Jermaine stood their ground and glared right back. Marina stared at the two groups for a moment before deciding to say something. However, she got cut off when an older boy carrying a tray of food walked in.

"Excuse me, is there a problem?"

"Nathaniel, these crazy broads are trying to pick a fight with us!" Jermaine said, still glaring at the girls.

Nathaniel looked at the angry girls and groaned a little under his breath. After getting away with just a warning for the Music Box incident a month prior, he didn't want to push his luck by getting into an argument.

The best solution was to act as peacemaker.

"Come now, everyone; there's no need to fight. I'm sure whatever happened was just a simple misunderstanding, so let's just let bygones be bygones, okay?" Nathaniel said, hoping the girls would calm down.

"Fine." Yasmin sneered, pulling her bag under her seat.

Nathaniel gave a small nod and nudged Ken and Jermaine. The two boys shot the girls one last look before following Nathaniel to one of the back tables. Marina looked back at the three boys, and then at her friends.

"Well that was... interesting." She said. "I can't believe you guys were going to fight some dumb kids."

"Oh please, as if!" Yasmin said, turning a little red in the face. "Why would I waste my time on a bunch of weirdos?"

"Speaking of weirdo's," Mia chimed in, pointing at the back table. Turning around, they saw a blonde-haired girl carrying a tray of drinks while holding the hand of a smaller girl.

"Isn't that Michelle DuBois, the girl whose family owns that bakery downtown?" Marina asked.

"She's also the weirdo that talks to the Marionette," Amber whispered.

"I heard she was the one who was putting food in the Music Box as some offering," Yasmin whispered.

"Shh, she coming this way, be cool," Mia this way, be cool," Mia said.

Turning back around, Marina and her friends pretended to be deep in conversation. From the corner of their eyes, they saw Michelle approach the table next to them and stop. She began pulling out each of the chairs and looking at them in disgust. Sighing loudly, Michelle turned her attention to Marina's table.

"Um, excuse me," she said. "If you four aren't using that extra chair, may I have it?"

"Sure, go right ahead," Mia said. Taking the chair, Michelle thanked the four tweens and was about to walk away when Mia added, " by the way, the next time you're in Prize Corner, ask the Marionette for this week's lotto numbers. Mama needs a new pair of shoes! "tweens and was about to walk away when Mia added, " by the way, the next time you're in Prize Corner, ask the Marionette for this week's lotto numbers. Mama needs a new pair of shoes!"

"Excuse me?" Michelle slowly set the chair back down and furrowed her brows at the now giggling girls.

"Yeah, and ask it what my horoscope is; I'm tired of looking it up in the papers," Yasmin said.

Michelle stood there glaring at the four of them, fuming; she could feel her face heating up.

"Whoa, are you okay?" Amber asked, grabbing Michelle's face. "Your face is red and swollen!"

"Her face is just chubby, dummy," Yasmin said. "If anything, it's those eyebrows we should be addressing. Like good God are they even real? They're thick and oddly shaped."

"Let's not forget about that hair," Mia stood from her seat and tugged on Michelle's tuft. "I've never seen hair that tuft at the top like this except on— Chica! Oh my gosh, you look just like Chica! The round face, weird tuft hair on top of your head, thick eyebrows; yup, exactly like her! Marina, doesn't she look like Chica?"

Marina was about to answer when she noticed tears streaming down Michelle's face. Realizing her friends' comments were hurting Michelle's feelings, Marina decided to intervene.

"Okay, guys, knock it off already; it's not funny anymore."

"What, we're honest," Yasmin said, trying to touch Michelle's eyebrows. "Just look how thi—"

"STOP THAT!" Michelle snapped, slapping Yasmin's hand away. Shoving Amber and Mia back, Michelle darted out of the room in tears, causing Nathaniel to call out her name and go after her. Without thinking, Marina got up to go after Michelle too but was stopped by Yasmin grabbing her arm.

"What are you doing, don't go after her!" She said, pulling Marina back down in her seat.

"But Yas, she was upset and—"

"Who cares! If she can't handle a little joke, that's her problem. Now come on, the show's about to start." Yasmin said.

Before Marina could protest, the sound of drum rolls, followed by a friendly, booming voice pulled her attention to the stage.

"Hey kids, are you ready to rock?!"

Cheers rang out as the curtains opened, revealing three large silhouettes. The stage lights danced sporadically around the figures, making it hard to see their appearance.

"Alright! Let me introduce you to the band: om guitar is my good friend and yours, Bonnie the Bunny!" The first light halted, revealing a bright, shiny blue colored rabbit with pale, powder blue inside his ears, muzzle, and belly. He had green eyes, magenta eyelids, long eyelashes, and rosy red, blushed cheeks. As Toy Bonnie turned waving at the crowd, Marina could see his white circular tail. "Singing backup is the spunky party animal herself, Chica the Chicken!" When the second light stopped, Marina was surprised by Toy Chica's appearance. Even though she retained her original colors, her body had a more feminine appearance. Her eyes were blue, with purple eyelids, long eyelashes, and pink blushed cheeks. She wore a pink garment on her lower body, and in her hand was her signature cupcake. Her bib had tiny colorized flecks with the words "LET'S PARTY!" written across the front of it. "And finally, singing lead vocals is your favorite family pal; the one, the only, Freddy Fazbear!" With the final light stopping, Freddy opened his eyes and waved at the crowd. Unlike Toy Bonnie and Toy Chica, Toy Freddy's appearance was similar to his original counterpart. The only difference was that his face was much flatter, wider, and more round. He was also much taller, and he had noticeable buck teeth. His top hat now had a red strip, and like the other toy animatronics, he had rosy red, blushed cheeks

The crowd cheered louder as Freddy, and his band walked up to the mics and sang.

"Wow, they even sound better!" Mia said.

"And they're a lot cuter," Amber added.

"Not as cute as Mr. Miles, though." Yasmin chimed in, smiling. She turned to Marina, who was staring at the back table where the three younger kids that accompanied Michelle and Nathaniel sat. Noticing Marina's worried expression, Yasmin sighed in annoyance. "Come on, Marina, forget about that girl already. You wanted to see the show, right, well here it is. Don't let her ruin it for you."

As much as Marina did want to watch the show, she couldn't stop thinking about Michelle. Seeing her run off crying like that made Marina feel awful.

She knew she had to find her and apologize.

"I'll be right back, I... have to go to the bathroom." Getting up from her seat, Marina carefully maneuvered her way out of the dark room and into the bright hallway. Adjusting her eyes to the light, Marina walked down the hall, wondering where Michelle could have gone. She decided to check Prize Corner first.

To her dismay, Michelle wasn't there.

 _Dang it, where could she be? She couldn't have left so where is she?_ Marina thought. _Oh, maybe she's in Kid's Cove!_ Walking over to the next room, Marina could hear a familiar voice arguing with someone. Realizing who it belonged to, she stopped at the entrance and saw Samuel and a security guard yelling at each other. Behind Samuel was a dismantled Toy Foxy.

"I told you, I didn't do this!" Samuel said. "It was already like this when I came in!"

"Oh really? Then why were you holding Foxy's arm then?" The security guard smugly asked.

"I was trying to put him back together!" Samuel replied.

"Ha! You expect me to believe that?" The security guard snorted, grabbing Samuel's collar. "Listen, kid; I have a lot of work to do, and I don't need some snot-nosed, little shit making my job harder. So if you know what's good for you, you'll tell me the truth right now or I'll—" The security guard froze when he noticed Marina standing at the entrance. He quickly let go of Samuel and cleared his throat.

"You know what, forget it. Just stay out of trouble, alright?" With that, the security guard quickly left Kid's Cove.

Marina slowly walked over to Samuel and looked down at the dismantled animatronic, grimacing at its appearance. Unlike the original, Toy Foxy was white with red, blushed cheeks, painted red lips, and long eyelashes. Her belly, muzzle, inner ears, and eyelids were pink, along with her nails and bow tie. Upon inspection, Marina realized Toy Foxy didn't have an eyepatch or a hook hand; she was completely stripped of the original pirate theme.

"How is this a pirate?" Marina asked, picking up Toy Foxy's head. "It looks more like a circus clown; what is this suppose to be? No wonder you took it apart."

"I didn't!" Samuel snapped. "But whoever did, I can't blame. Look around, even our beloved Pirate's Cove was stripped of its pirate theme in favor for this abomination known as Kid's Cove; it's sickening."

"Yeah." Marina nudged Toy Foxy's body and sighed. Setting down the head, she asked, "have you seen a little blonde girl run by here or anything?"

"Um, I did see that one with the funny eyebrows; Michelle was it?" Samuel tapped his chin for a moment before nodding his head. "Yeah, I saw her before I came in here. Man, she was upset about something. Wait, why do you want to find her?"

"It's complicated." Taking a deep breath, Marina then asked, "I hate to ask you this, but will you help me look for her?"

"I don't know; I'm still pretty sore about you putting me in a headlock and getting me in trouble..." Samuel said with a sly grin on his face. "But I guess I can help you; on one condition! You have to help me sneak into the Parts and Services room; I want to pay my respects to the real Foxy one last time. So do we have a deal?"

"Ugh, fine, let's just get this over with so that I can continue looking for Michelle," Marina grumbled, following Samuel out of the room and to the other side of the building.

Arriving at the Parts and Services room, Marina and Samuel did a quick look around to make sure the coast was clear.

"I think we're good," Samuel said.

"Well, what are you waiting for, hurry up and do what you gotta do. I don't want to get caught." Marina said.

"Relax, Marina, we're not going to get caught," Samuel said, walking in. "See, not getting caught alread— oof!" Looking up, Samuel found himself face to face with an angry looking employee.

"Hey, what do you kids think you're doing?" He asked. "Didn't you read the sign: Employees only; now get!"

"But—"

"I said get!" The employee pushed Samuel out of the room and slammed the door. Samuel shook the knob and growled.

"Dammit," he said. "How are we going to get in now?"

"I don't know, but now it's time for you to pay your half of the bargain," Marina said, grabbing Samuel's arm. "Now help me look for Michelle."

"What, no way!" Samuel pulled his arm away from Marina. "I haven't paid my last respects to the Captain yet!"

"Come on, Samuel; that's not fair! You can come back here some other time, but right now you need to help me with my problem." Marina said.

"Not until I see Foxy," Samuel told her, coolly.

"Well unless you got some other plan, we're not getting in there," Marina said.

"You guys are such amateurs. If I may, I think I can help you both with your little dilemma."

"Hey, you're that kid from earlier; the one with that other boy and Michelle," Marina said as Ken walked up to her and Samuel. "Tell me, how is Michelle doing? Where is she? Is she still here? Can you tell me where—"

"Whoa, cool it with the questions, lady! I haven't seen her since she ran off bawling," Ken said. "Now as I was saying, I can help you two, but in exchange, you have to take me with you."

"Okay, but how exactly are you going to help us?" Samuel asked. "If you haven't noticed, there's an employee back there, and he locked the door."

Ken shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Like I said, amateurs. Wait here," Ken quickly ran down the hall and into another room. A few moments later, he returned with Jermaine and a small blonde girl. "If you're going to sneak into any place, you gotta have a good distraction to lure away any goons that are hanging around. That's where these two will come in; they'll be our distractions."

"What, no way!" Jermaine said. "I don't mind helping Red, but I am not helping her; she's friends with those nasty girls!"

"Look, I know you must think the worst of me after what happened, but I really need your help. The sooner we get into that back room, the sooner I can find Michelle and apologize." Marina said.

Jermaine stared at Marina for a moment, then sighed in defeat. "Okay, I'll help you; for a price. Fifty dollars, up front, right now."

"Ugh, fine, here!" Marina said, handing Jermaine the money.

"Thank you." Jermaine then turned to Ken. "Alright, so what's the plan?"

Smiling, Ken left the area and came back shortly, carrying both of Toy Foxy's arms. " For us to get into the back room; we need to get rid of that annoying employee first. So I want you and Penelope to cause as much havoc as you can using these. Once you do, I'll call for help, get the employee's attention, and boom; we're in."

"Understood," Jermaine said, taking on of Toy Foxy's arm.

"Hey, what about me?" Penelope asked, taking the other arm. "I want something too."

"Fine, you can have this, um, candy bar," Ken said, handing her the candy. "Now get going." Once Jermaine and Penelope were a good distance away from them, Ken cupped his hands over his mouth and shouted.

"Someone come quick, it's an emergency; please help!"

Within a matter of seconds, the door to the Parts and Service room swung open. "What are you griping about, kid?" The irate employee asked. Ken pointed down the hall where Jermaine and Penelope were waving around Toy Foxy's arms and knocking things over. "Are you kidding me? Hey you two, put that down right now! Hey, don't you run away from me; get back here!"

With the employee finally out of the way, Ken, Marina, and Samuel entered the room, shutting the door behind them. Once inside, Samuel immediately rushed over to Foxy and hugged him.

"It's good to see you again, Captain! I'm sorry they replaced you with that horrid abomination and ruined your cove, but no matter what, you'll always hold a special place in my heart."

"It's a robot, dude; Foxy could care less about your feelings," Ken scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Besides, he was old and pretty creepy; he had to be removed just like— BONNIE!" Darting to the other side of the room where the original Bonnie sat, Ken fell to his knees and grabbed the animatronics hand. "What did they do to you, big guy? Where's your other hand— where's your face?!"

"Can you two please hurry and wrap this up already?" Marina said, impatiently. "In case you've forgotten, there's still a certain somebody I need to find."

"Relax, Curls, we'll get to you in a second," Ken said.

"Yeah, Marina, chill." Samuel chimed in, trying to remove Foxy's hook hand. "I'm almost done here."

"Seriously? Is that why you wanted to come in here, to steal Foxy's hook hand?" Marina asked.

"More or less," he answered.

"You know what, forget this! It was obvious I made a crucial mistake trusting you two, so I'm going to look for Michelle by myself! Have fun getting caught." Marina snapped, reaching for the doorknob. Before she could grab it, the door flew open. She froze, expecting to see the employee, but instead she saw Jermaine with an angry-looking Nathaniel.

Pushing Jermaine aside, Nathaniel stormed over to Ken, glaring at him. "Ken, are you crazy? What do you think you're doing?!" Nathaniel scolded. "Do you know how much trouble you can get into if someone else had found you first?"

"Chill, Nathaniel, I was just helping out these chumps over here," Ken said, pointing to Marina and Samuel. "Which reminds me, where's Michelle; Curls here needs to talk to her."

"She's looking for Penelope at the moment," Nathaniel replied, casting a sideways glance at Marina. "Honestly, Ken, using Jermaine and Penelope as distractions just so that you can sneak in here. Come on, let's all get out of here before we get caught."

"But I don't have Foxy's hand hook yet," Samuel said.

"Forget it; you're not taking it!" Marina said, grabbing Samuel and ignoring his protest.

As the group was heading towards the exit, Michelle suddenly burst through the door, nearly knocking everyone over.

"Nathaniel, I can't find Penelope! I looked everywhere; I don't know where she could be!" Michelle exclaimed. Narrowing her eyes at Ken, she stormed over to him and grabbed him by his shoulders. "You! Where is Penelope? What have you done to my baby sister?!"

"Calm down, Michelle, I'm sure she's still in the building somewhere," Nathaniel said.

"Yeah, they wouldn't let a small child leave by herself. Especially since she's carrying around an animatronic arm." Ken said.

"What?! Why is carrying an animatronic arm, tell me!" Michelle exclaimed, shaking Ken.

"Come on, guys. We can discuss this after we get out of here," Nathaniel said, separating the two. "If we stay here any longer, we're going to be in bug trouble. Let's go before we're all—"

"Caught? Yeah, that ship's already sailed, buddy."

Everyone tensed up, slowly turning towards the door. Standing at the entrance of the room was a security guard. Recognizing the employee as the man that was yelling at Samuel earlier in Kid's Cove, Marina glanced at Samuel, who had a disgusted look on his face.

"I hope you all had your fun," the security guard said, with a smarmy grin. "Because it'll be the last you'll ever have."


	12. Chapter 10: Grand Reopening Part II

**Chapter 10: Grand Reopening pt. II**

"This is unacceptable; my child could have gotten hurt!"

"Ma'am, please calm down."

Even though they were supposed to be on break, Barney and Melina found themselves in Kid's Cove, trying to calm an irate woman. Laying on the ground in front of them was a dismantled Toy Foxy.

"Calm down? My child could've been hurt and you expect me to calm down?!" The woman barked

"Ma'am, I can assure you that nothing bad would have happened," Barney said, gathering all of Toy Foy's pieces. "We here at Freddy Fazbear's make sure that safety is our number one priority."

"You call this safety?" The woman shoved one of Toy Foxy's arms into Barney's chest. "I found my son playing with this. You people are lucky nothing happened to him!"

"Where did he get this?" Melina asked.

"He found it," the woman answered. "He told me he saw a young boy with an afro running around with it before he dropped it."

"But where's the other arm, though?" Barney asked.

"How should I know?" The woman snapped. " Honestly, what kind of security guards are you two? Your incompetence is abysmal!"

"We're doing the best we can, ma'am," Melina said.

"Well, it's not good enough! If you want to prove it you can start by finding the hooligan that did this and make sure he doesn't do it again!" The woman said.

"Believe us, ma'am, we will," Barney assured her. "An offense of this magnitude is at least a six-month ban; maybe more."

"That's it?" The woman scoffed, "you think a simple ban is going to stop them? If you want them to learn, you must impress it upon them!"

"Ma'am, we can't use physical force to stop them," Melina explained. "Now if they're accompanied by a legal guardian, we let them handle it, but since most kids come here unsupervised, we do what we can."

Do what you— are you people retarded? You might as well throw the damn culprit a celebration for their misdeeds if that's the best you can do! You people are so incompetent it just blows my mind! I'm surprised a lawsuit hasn't been filed yet," the woman nagged. "Your lack in child safety is obvious, so don't try to fool me with that 'safety is our number one priority' shit because I'm not falling for it!"

Barney could feel himself getting angrier as the woman kept rambling. Taking a deep breath, Barney turned to the woman and gently placed his hand on her shoulder. "Ma'am, I promise you I won't let this go unpunished. I will find the culprit and when I do, I'll personally see to it that they receive a public flogging on stage for all to see; that way no one will ever think of messing with the animatronics again! They shall receive eighty lashes; no more, no less. How does that sound to you?"

Melina placed her hand over her mouth, trying to stifle her laughter. The woman gasped and slapped Barney across the face. "How dare you speak to me that way! That's it, I've had it with you two incompetent morons. Let's see how funny it is when I speak to your manager and you two find yourselves on the street dining on garbage and your own waste!" The woman stormed out of Kid's Cove, muttering swears under her breath.

Melina groaned and smirked at Barney. "Don't worry about that old hag, I'll take care of her. You stay here and try to put our dismantled friend back together." Calling the woman, Melina left Kid's Cove, leaving Barney with the dismantled animatronic.

Touching his cheek, he let out a small hiss. It stung and was slightly warm where the woman had slapped him. "Fucking bitch..." he muttered. Ignoring the pain, Barney put Toy Foxy back together, but with her other arm still missing, the animatronic was of no use.

"Okay, you creepy clown, where is your other arm?"

Just as Barney said that a little blonde-haired girl ran into the room, carrying Toy Foxy's other arm. Barney watched the small girl look side to side— not noticing his prescence— before diving under one of the tables, clutching the arm tightly. Approaching the table, Barney knelt down and smiled at the girl.

"Well, hello there, sweetie," he said, startling the girl. "Aren't you a cutie pie, what's your name?"

The little girl stared at Barney for a moment before answering with a big smile. "Penelope."

"Penelope? What a pretty name for a pretty girl!" Barney said. "Listen, sweet pea, that arm you got there isn't a toy, so I'm going to need it back, alright?"

With a large grin on her face, Penelope shook her head and clung tighter to the arm. _"Non!"_

"C'mon, sweetie, I'm not playing around; give me the arm."

"Nope!" Penelope giggled. "Sowwy Puple Man, but I'm the distwaction, so if you don't mind," Penelope took out the candy bar Ken had given her and bit into it. However, he expression turned sour when an odd taste filled her mouth. Spitting it out, Penelope held out the candy in disgust and stuck out her tongue.

"Ack! Candy's gone bad!"

Barney took the candy and examined it. Handing it back to Penelope, he gave her an apologetic look. "I hate to break it to you, kid, but that's not a candy; it's a fruit bar."

Looking at the fruit bar more thoroughly, Penelope furrowed her brows and threw the fruit bar across the room. "I've been twicked!" Crawling out from under the table, Penelope then threw Toy Foxy's arm. Barney cringed as the arm slammed against Toy Foxy, nearly knocking her over."

Growling under his breath, Barney glared down at Penelope, who was standing crossed arm and staring at her shoes with a pout on her face. Noticing her expression, Barney groaned. _Oh great, just what I needed, another headache. I better deal with this fast before this brat causes more trouble for me._ Bending down on one knee, Barney placed his hand on top of Penelope's head.

"Hey, I'm real sorry, Penelope. It's no fun being tricked, huh?"

Penelope shook her head.

"Say, how about we get even with whoever tricked you?" Barney said. "You tell me everything you know about this Foxy incident and I'll see to it that they'll be punished. Do this and I'll give you something in return."

Still looking down at her shoes, Penelope thought for a moment before nodding her head. "I want ow scweam."

"Sure thing, sweetie," Barney said, picking Penelope up. "Now, why don't you start by telling me who put you up to this."

* * *

Sitting in the back office in awkward silence felt like torture to Ken as he and the other kids waited for the security guard to return. Nathaniel was nervously twiddling his thumbs and mumbling under his breath while Michelle was trying to comfort him; Marina was impatiently bouncing her knee while glancing at Michelle and glaring at Samuel, who was firing spitballs at the Paper Pals on the wall. Getting annoyed by the vibration caused by Marina bouncing her knee, Ken grabbed her leg.

"Do you mind, I'm starting to get motion sickness here."

Marina shot out of her chair, causing it to slide and slam against the wall. "I can't help it, the waiting is agonizing!"

"Take a chill pill, Curls," Ken snorted.

"Yeah, Marina, calm down," Samuel chimed in.

"Calm down? This is your fault, Samuel!" Marina shouted. "If you had just helped me like I asked, none of this would have happened! Once that security guard comes back, we're screwed! We'll probably get perma-banned!"

"Oh my God, will you just shut up already!" Ken barked. "All we did was sneak into the back room to look at the animatronics; it's no big deal. Besides, I've done far worse. I once smashed a slice of pizza into that chump, Mr. Miles' face."

"That's not something to be proud of, Ken!" Nathaniel scolded suddenly. "What you did today was a huge deal! Or should I say, what you _both_ did." Nathaniel shot a look at Jermain who was sitting quietly and messing with a loose thread on his shirt, avoiding all eye contact.

"Yeah, and because of you, my baby sister is somewhere in the restaurant by herself while I'm sitting here awaiting punishment for something I didn't do!" Michelle added. "Learn to behave for once!"

"Um, for your information, I am behaving. I was merely lending my services to two people in need and I needed a little assistance from your sister." Ken said.

"You used my sister and for what, to help this rejected Midge doll and," Michelle wrinkled her nose, glaring up and down at Marina, "her."

Hearing the venom in Michelle's voice made Marina feel worse. "Listen, Michelle, I—" Before Marina could finish, the security guard strolled into the room, whistling an off-beat tune.

"Sorry for the wait, kiddies," he said as he took his seat at the desk, kicking his feet up. He then grabbed the phone and flipped through the pages. "I have a lot of work to do, so let's just get this over with. Tell me your numbers and we'll be all done here."

"Wat," Michelle said, "before you do anything, please let go look for my baby sister. She's somewhere in the restaurant by herself and—"

"Sit back down, kid!" The security guard snapped. "You think I'm going to fall for that one? What do you think I am, stupid?"

"Very," Samuel answered

"She's not lying, dude," Ken said. "Now come on, let her go find her sister."

"Yeah," Samuel said. "Stop calling everyone a liar and let Polka-brows find her—"

"ENOUGH!" The security guard yelled, slamming his hand on the desk. "I'm trying to be the good guy here, but you brats just keep pushing my buttons! I wasn't going to say anything, but you brats need to learn the truth: The new animatronics weren't just made to look more kid-friendly, they were made to catch hooligan children and report them. So I hope you kids have a good lawyer because once the authorities find out, you'll be doing some hard time."

"Do you expect me to believe that?" Marina shot out of her chair and leaned over the desk, glaring daggers at the security guard. "Doing hard time— don't make me laugh! It's obvious you don't know who I am, so I'll tell you: I'm Marina Inés Câmara; daughter of supreme judge, Aurielle Câmara; and niece of Miguel Fernandez Câmara, the chief of police. That's right, buddy, the chief of police is my uncle and he told me all about how these animatronics work, so don't go around spewing false crap, especially to me!"

The security guard stared at Marina for a moment before cracking a smile. Leaning back in his chair, he chuckled. "Man, talk about being a pain in my ass... okay, okay, don't get your panties in a bunch. You know, you're a pretty cute girl, perhaps we can let this slide on one condition," pushing out his chair, the security guard patted his lap.

"How's about you come sit on my knee, darling, and we can discuss this whole situation."

"Ew, gross! Eat a tampon, creep!" Marina spat.

"Oh, come on, don't be like that," the security guard then turned his attention to Michelle. "Your friend with the eyebrows is pretty cute herself... hey, cupcake, I got room for one more."

"I don't know what's worse: the fact you want me to sit on your lap or you referring to me as her friend," Michelle commented, wrinkling her face in disgust.

"Have a heart, ladies, it's a simple request. Besides, you did it for that other security guard, so why not me?

Maybe because he's not a pervert like you, Rudy," Samuel answered. "And he smells better."

"First of all, you little shit, my name is Rubin. Second, if you two don't do what I say, I'll tell your parents you lot were threatening me."

"Now hold on a second, you can't do that!" Nathaniel exclaimed.

"Yeah, man, not cool!" Ken said

"Have you no shame? Where do you get off making threats like that?" Jermaine said.

"You disgusting creep, you won't get away with this; I'll make sure of that!" Marina said.

"Shut up, you won't be doing anything," Rubin smirked. "Besides, who's going to believe you? I'm the adult and you're a bunch of kids."

"Well, I'm not a kid."

Barney strolled into the room carrying Penelope, and stood next to the desk, staring down at the younger security guard. "Do you think the parents will believe me if I tell them you're the one making threats and inappropriate advances at two young girls? You know what, maybe Claire should hear this too; get a second opinion on the matter, what do you think, Rubin?"

"No..." Rubin growled, glaring at Barney.

"I thought so," Barney said. "How's about you run along now, I'll take it from here."

Still glaring at Barney, Rubin got up from his seat and walked out the room, but not before uttering a few swears under his breath as he passed by the kids. Once he was gone, Barney then turned his attention to Michelle, who was nearly in tears seeing her baby sister safe and unharmed.

"I believe this belongs to you," Barney said, handing Penelope to Michelle. "You should watch her more carefully from now on. I almost put this little cutie pie on display in Prize Corner thinking she was one of the toys."

"Oh my sweet Penelope, you're okay!" Michelle exclaimed, hugging and kissing her. "Merci, Monsieur Miles, merci! Penelope, don't you ever run off like that, you had me so worried."

"But I didn't, Ken took me," Penelope explained, glaring at Ken. "And he lied! He pwomised me candy, but all I gots was fwuits! But then the Puple Man gave me ow scweam and pwomised to punish him." With a grin on her face, Penelope stuck out her tongue at Ken.

"Welp, I say this story had a happy ending," Samuel said, leaning against Barney and patting him on the back. "Polka-brows is reunited with her sister, that creep, Rubin, left with his tail between his legs, and no one got hurt. I think we all learned that the important lesson here is to always tell the truth."

"Sit down, boy, I'm not through with any of you," Barney ordered. "Just because Rubin's gone doesn't mean you're off the hook. Now you have me to deal with, so you better start explaining yourselves."

"Uh, well, umm... funny story actually, we, uh..." Samuel stammered. "I-It's not what you think really, we, umm..."

"Oh really," Barney taunted, raising an eyebrow. "Well, what is it then? Because according to what Penelope told me, it sounds like Ken here used her and this other young man as distractions so that you and Marina could sneak into the back room and play around with the animatronics, am I right? Well, am I, Samuel; Ken, can you answer; how about you, Marina? Anyone?"

"Well, uh, you know what they say: kids say the darndest things," Ken chuckled, hoping to put a smile on Barney's face. But instead, his remark seemed to anger him.

"You think this is funny?" Barney scolded. "What you kids did today was not only stupid but dangerous! The animatronics can be dangerous if mishandled by the ones in the back room are dangerous, you could have been seriously hurt or worse! And how do you think your parents would've reacted if we had to call them and tell them that their child had to be rushed to the hospital due to them playing with the animatronics!"

Hearing the anger and disappointment in Barney's voice caused the tears Marina was holding back to burst. She covered her face, sobbing and muttering apologies through her shaky breath. Unable to take the guilt, Samuel confessed.

"Okay, I'll tell you everything. Alright so here's what happened: I was minding my own business when I overheard a group of kids talking about how they took down the new Foxy, so I got curious and decided to check it out. When I arrived, I found Toy Foxy in pieces. I tried putting him back together, but that's when that boob, Rubin, showed up and started harassing me. I tried telling him it wasn't me, but he wouldn't listen, that's when Marina showed up and scared him away. She told me she was looking for Polka-brows to make amends with her or something like that. But rather than helping her, I used her troubles against her and forced her to help me break into the back room. That's when Ken found us and well, I think you know the rest of it."

"I see," Barney said. "You caused me and another employee a lot of trouble today."

"I didn't mean to, I just wanted to see the old Foxy again," Samuel muttered. "I'm sorry."

Barney was silent, staring at Samuel then at the other kids. After a moment, he sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "You kids are quite troublesome, I swear... okay, here's the deal, I won't call your parents, but that doesn't mean you're off the hook. Ken, Marina, even though Samuel was the one who orchestrated this whole thing, you two chose to go along with him, so you're just as guilty. Especially you, Ken, since you stole Toy Foxy's arms, dragged two innocent kids into this, and nearly endangered their younger siblings. So here's what's going to happen, you three are banned from here for the rest of the evening and you will apologize to everyone for the trouble you caused. Do I make myself clear, everyone?"

"Yes sir," everyone said in unison.

"Good. In that case, Ken, Marina, Samuel; I think it's about time you three head home. Michelle, I think you and your party should do the same," Barney smiled pointing at Penelope, who was dozing off in Michelle's arm. "It seems our little cupcake here is all tuckered out."

Once they were dismissed, the kids each took their leave. Nathaniel took Ken and Jermaine by their upper arm, scolding them; Michelle thanked Barney again then followed after Nathaniel; Marina quickly got up and followed after Michelle, leaving Samuel alone with Barney.

"Just a minute," approaching Samuel, Barney dug into his pocket and pulled out a Foxy keychain. "Truth be told, I don't like the new Foxy either. In fact, I was quite disgusted when I saw him, so I tried fixing the old one, but as you saw I was unsuccessful." Smiling, Barney put the keychain in Samuel's hand.

"But at least I was able to find this little guy. So from one Foxy fan to another, keep him safe and please stay out of trouble, alright?"

Clutching the keychain tightly, Samuel nodded his head, grinning from ear to ear. "You have my word as a fellow pirate, Capt. Miles!" Waving goodbye, Samuel exited the back office. Down the hall, he saw Marina nervously biting her nails, looking at Michelle. Placing a hand on her shoulder, Samuel nudged her forward.

"She's right there, dude. Hurry up and talk to her before she leaves. After all, that's what you wanted to do right, so go."

Taking a deep breath, Marina walked up to Michelle and tapped her shoulder. Despite feeling a little intimidated by Michelle's intense glare, Marina stood her ground and smiled. "Boy, can you believe that other security guard trying to hit on us like that? What a perve! It's a good thing Mr. Miles came when he did or else who knew what that other guy would've done."

"Well, I'm sure you could've of just bought your way out of it using mommy or daddy's credit card," Michelle sneered. "But to be fair, none of this would have happened if you and your friend didn't kidnap my sister."

"Well, actually, that was your pal, Ken, who took her." Samuel pointed out, receiving a dirty look from both girls.

"This is a waste of my time, I'm done talking to you two," Michelle grumbled, adjusting Penelope in her arms. "Let's go, Nathaniel, I have to take Penelope home now." Casting one more dirty look at Marina and Samuel, Michelle walked off towards the exit. Taking Ken and Jermaine by their upper arms, Nathaniel followed after Michelle, scolding the two younger boys.

With Michelle gone, Samuel looked over at Marina, who had a blank expression on her face.

"Wow, talk about rough. So what are you going to do now?" Samuel asked.

"Isn't it obvious, I'm going to apologize to her."

"Wasn't that what you were supposed to do instead of... whatever it was you just did?"

"I know. I was hoping to lighten up the mood a bit, but it only seemed to make her angry." Marina sighed sadly. "I'll apologize for real tomorrow. That way, it'll give her time to cool off. Hopefully, she'll accept it."


	13. Chapter 11: The Gift Giver

**A/N:** Thank you all for your patience. November has been a really horrible and stressful month for me. My cat of 15 years passed away recently and then shortly after that, I caught the flu. I hope you enjoy this new chapter! Thanks for reading!

* * *

 **Chapter 11: The Gift Giver**

"Marina, what are we doing here?"

"Yeah, school's back the other way,"

It was a cool spring morning when Marina and her friends stopped by the DuBois Bakery. After yesterday's chaotic event, Marina was even more determined to make things right.

"I know," Marina replied, "we're here because we all owe Michelle an apology. What you guys said to her was way out of line."

"Hey, don't blame us," Yasmin frowned, "it's not our fault she's overly sensitive."

"Oh, don't give me that, Yas. You know darn well you wouldn't like it if someone teased you about your appearance," Marina scolded. "Now be nice, here she comes."

Exiting the bakery with her backpack draped over her shoulder and a cake in her hands, Michelle hopped on her bike. As she was riding off, Marina ran in front of her, nearly causing Michelle to run her over. Slamming on her brakes and swerving to a stop, Michelle growled at Marina.

"Are you crazy, I nearly ran you over! You're lucky this cake didn't fall or you'd be in serious trouble." Taking notice of the other three girls, Michelle narrowed her eyes at them. "Oh great, your friends are here too? What do you want; you come here to make fun of me some more?"

"No. We came here to apologize; right, guys?" Marina glared at her friends, who groaned and nodded their heads. Turning back to Michelle, Marina handed her a nicely wrapped basket. "Here. I, uh, made you a present... it's a gift basket; I hope you like it."

Looking at the Marina then the basket, Michelle slowly took it. As she unwrapped it, Marina smiled. "I do hope you like it. I made sure I picked out things that might suit your likes."

A wave of disgust washed over Michelle's face as she looked inside the basket. "Ew gross! This is your idea of things I might like: a bottle of massage oil, sexy lingerie, edible underwear, personal lubricants, a bottle of french imported wine, and... a porno movie?! Are you stupid; I'm a ten-year-old girl, why would any of this be to my liking?!" Shoving the basket back into Marina's arms, Michelle said, "just stay away from me, you creep! And by the way, apology NOT accepted! Now get out of my way, I have to deliver this cake before school starts."

Michelle rode off angrily before Marina could say anything else. Confused by Michelle's remark, Marina looked into the basket and made a horrible discovery.

"Oh no, I grabbed the wrong basket! Yasmin, this is the basket your dad made for your mom for their anniversary. What have I done; I just made things worse!"

"Hey, don't beat yourself up, Mari, you tried," Amber comforted. "Forget about that girl, she's a lost cause anyway."

"Honestly, I don't know what she was getting so mad over. I bet the items in the basket are worth more than her thrift shop looking wardrobe." Mia added.

"Obviously," Yasmin mumbled, disturbed by the items inside the basket. Looking at her watch, Yasmin tugged on Marina's arm. "Let's just forget about this alright? C'mon let's go, we're going to be late for school."

Sighing, Marina carefully placed the basket in her bag and followed her friends to school

* * *

All through class Marina couldn't stop thinking about what she had done. She just wanted to apologize and make amends with Michelle, but instead, she made things worse. Unable to focus, Marina decided to ditch for the rest of the day. Faking a stomach ache, she was excused from class. Stopping by her locker, she quickly gathered her things and left.

Once she was far away from the school, Marina wondered what she would do next. Since she couldn't go home, she decided to walk around town to clear her head. After awhile, Marina started to get hungry and realizing it was close to lunch time, stopped at Freddy's for a bite.

Luckily the place wasn't crowded since it was a school day. Most of the customers were parents with their toddlers and young adults. Walking up to the counter, Marina ordered her meal and waited. Once it was ready she took it and sat at one of the vacant tables. Eating quietly, she sighed and closed her eyes.

"This is quite a mess I've made for myself," Marina said to herself. Leaning on her hands, she let out an agitated groan. "How am I going to fix this now?" Lost in her thoughts, Marina failed to notice someone sneaking up behind her.

"Marina Inés Câmara, as I live and breath!" The voice shouted, causing Marina to jump up. Spinning around in her seat, Marina held her chest then rolled her eyes realizing who it was.

"Samuel, you jerk, you nearly gave me a heart attack!"

"Sorry, I'm just surprised to see you here," looking at the time, Samuel raised an eyebrow at Marina. "Wait, what are you doing here? You were never one to skip school before. Let me guess, teenage rebellion?"

"Oh shush, it's nothing like that. I just needed to clear my head for awhile," Marina then raised her eyebrow at Samuel. "You're supposed to be in school too; what's your excuse?"

Samuel's expression immediately fell. "I, uh... got into a little fight with my uncle last night and well... I just don't want to deal with school right now."

"Samuel—" Marina started, lifting up Samuel's shirt, but was instantly cut off by Samuel.

"Don't worry about it though. It was mostly verbal insults this time, so yeah," pushing away Marina's hand and tugging his shirt down, Samuel smiled, quickly changing the subject. "Anyways, I'm just happy to see another familiar face here. I was getting kinda lonely."

"Another? Who else is here?"

"BOO!"

Marina nearly fell out of her seat this time as a hand slapped her on the shoulder. Whipping her head around, she groaned, seeing as it was none other than Ken. Smirking at Marina's reaction, Ken took a seat across from her.

"Hey there, Curls. We meet again."

"Ugh, it's you... what's your excuse for being here?" Marina groaned.

"Bathroom break," Ken grinned, holding up a hall pass. "Hey, they never told me which bathroom, so here I am! Now what's your excuse, huh? Lady problems?"

"No," Marina sneered, "look, I have a lot on my mind, so it's complicated."

"How so?" Ken asked.

"Well..." Marina was hesitant to say anything, but since Ken knew Michelle, she thought maybe he could tell her something that would fix this whole mess. "Okay, here's what happened," Marina told Ken and Samuel the whole story. By the time she was done, both kids were laughing hard. Marina's face immediately heated up.

"This isn't funny, I'm being serious!"

"You're right, you're right. I'm sorry," Samuel apologized, clearing his throat.

Ken on the other hand snickered. "Wow, you really screwed that one up! No wonder she hates you."

"I know," Marina whined. "So how can I fix this?"

"Fix this; ha! Good luck with that," Ken snorted. "Michelle isn't a very forgiving person. Once you've lost her favor, it's nearly impossible to regain it. You have a better chance trying to freeze Hell over."

"Well I got to at least try!" Marina exclaimed. "C'mon, Ken, you're friends with her, you gotta know something."

"She's more Nathaniel's friend than mine; we're mostly acquaintances," Ken stated. "But I think I can help you. For months now, Michelle's been saving up her tickets to buy that bike up in Prize Corner. But when the pizzeria reopened yesterday, the price went up. If you get her that bike, she might hear you out, but there's no guaranteed she'll accept your apology."

Marina was quiet for a moment, then asked, "how much is the bike?"

"It's twenty-thousand tickets," Samuel replied.

"You can't buy it with cash either; Michelle tried that," Ken added.

"Fine then, I'll just get her the bike by winning those tickets!" Marina vowed.

"And we'll help you," Samuel said, receiving a suspicious look from Marina.

"In exchanged for what," she asked, "Foxy's arm?"

"Listen, I'm sorry about using you yesterday; that was wrong. But we can make it up to you," Samuel said.

"Besides, there's no way you can win twenty-thousand tickets by yourself. So what do you say, Curls?"

Marina stared at the two, reluctant to accept their help. But seeing as this was her only option, she accepted. "Okay, but no funny business." Taking a hundred dollars from her wallet, Marina got up and inserted it into the token machine. Collecting the tokens, Marina returned to the table and divided it evenly.

"We play until our tokens run out, got it? We meet back here once we're done, now let's go win us a bike!"

Taking their tokens, the three kids split up, each playing different games. About an hour later, they returned to the table with the tickets they've won. Setting it down in a pile, Samuel began counting them.

"So how much did we win?" Marina asked.

"One thousand, four hundred," Samuel answered.

"Really? I would have thought we would have more than that," looking at Ken, Marina noticed him holding something behind his back. Narrowing her eyes at him, Marina reached over and snatched the item away from him. "What the... a Toy Bonnie plush? Oh, Ken, you didn't!"

"I couldn't help myself, I had to get him; he squeaks and plays music," Ken said, grabbing the plush.

"This is hopeless, we'll never win the bike at this rate!" Marina exclaimed. Looking at her watch, she realized there was only an hour left of school. And once the kids get out, they'll more than likely come to the pizzeria to unwind, making their chances to get the bike harder. Taking a deep breath, Marina then said, "there's only one thing left to do; we're going to have to cheat.

Ken and Samuel both looked at Marina in shock.

"Alright, Curls! Now you're speaking my language!"

"Well this is new," Samuel grinned, stroking his chin. "Why the sudden change of heart?"

"Believe me, I don't want to, but time's running out. Once school lets out, this place will be swarming with kids— kids who probably want the bike too. I can't let them have it."

"Don't worry, we'll get it for sure," digging into his pocket, Samuel pulled out a token with a string attached to it. "If you're going to cheat, you gotta know where to start. And I know the perfect game." Ken and Marina followed Samuel back into the Game Room.

"Personally, I find no better game to cheat then Freddy's Pizza Rollers."

"Brilliant choice, Samuel," Marina praised. "Skeeball is the easiest game to cheat at!"

"And with that rigged token you got in your hand, we can use it over and win even more tickets!" Ken added. "C'mon, let's do it!"

Looking around to make sure the coast was clear, Samuel inserted the token then pulled it out. With the game now started, Samuel grabbed all the balls and handed them to Marina, who then handed them to Ken. Taking them from her, Ken dropped all the balls into the hundred point hole. The three repeated their tactic on each of the skeeball machines, watching the endless stream of tickets pour out from the slot. They continued on until all of the machines ran out of tickets.

Marina leaped into the pile and giggled. "Look at all these tickets! I've never seen so many in one pile before!"

"I know right, we probably have at least fifty-thousand," Samuel guesstimated, rolling up all the tickets. Taking the tickets, Marina pulled out a rubber band to hold them together.

"You guys really came through for me today. Tell you what, after we get the bike, desserts are on me!" Marina cheered, holding up the tickets. Before she had a chance to put her hand down, the tickets were snatched from her.

"Hey, who the hell— oooooh," turning around, Marina froze at the all too familiar face glaring down at her. Shrinking back, she nervously smiled. "Hi, Mr. Miles, how are you? You look very handsome today, have you been working out?" Barney said nothing as he continued to glare at all three of them, tapping his foot impatiently. Hoping to lighten the mood, Marina quickly changed the subject.

"Listen, I'm really sorry about the trouble I caused yesterday. I, uh, made gift baskets for the whole staff. Did you get yours, I had them delivered here earlier."

"Yes, I did. Thank you, it was very thoughtful," Barney said flatly, still looking very annoyed.

Seeing as Marina was only making things more awkward, Samuel stepped in, flashing Barney a huge smile. "With all due respects, Mr. M, we're actually in a bit of a hurry, so can we please have our tickets back?"

"Yeah, fork them over, old man!" Ken shouted. "Those belong to us!"

"Oh no they don't; you three cheated, I saw you," Barney said. "I've been watching you three for awhile now and quite frankly, I'm very upset. I thought we had an understanding about following the rules, but clearly, I was wrong."

"Well maybe if you were better at your job, then none us this would've happened," Ken jeered. "Now how's about you be a good boy and give us back our tickets, m'kay? It's not like you can get yourself a date with a woman or even Chica for that matter with them."

"You just keep running that mouth of yours, kid. Just see where it gets you," Barney warned. "I'm getting really sick of your attitude, young man. You know, come to think of it, you still owe everyone an apology for yesterday's mishap.

"So does Samuel," Ken protested.

"That's where you're wrong; I apologized yesterday," Samuel interjected.

"Yes, you did. By hiding in the vents until closing time and then popping out, scaring everyone," Barney said, frowning. "You made me throw my drink at my bosses."

Samuel smiled sheepishly. "I said sorry for that too."

Shaking his head, Barney turned his attention back to Ken. "Well, I'm waiting. Apologize to my face right now or else."

"Fine. Mr. Miles, I'm very sorry about your face," Ken grinned deviously seeing Barney's eyes widen with shock. "It must be so tough waking up every day and seeing _Kuchisake-Onna_ looking back at you in the mirror, only to realize it's just your old, withered face. I bet when you were born, the doctor had a hard time deciding who to smack: you or your parents."

Barney didn't say anything as he glared at Ken, letting out a slight growl in the back of his throat. Taking a deep breath then exhaling it, Barney took out his wallet and pulled out a small photo, handing it to Ken. Slightly confused, Ken took the photo and examined it. The photo showed a little boy with his arms up, wearing an oversized dress shirt and smiling, revealing three of his missing teeth.

"Cute kid, is he yours?"

"That's me," Barney said. "I was around your age when that picture was taken."

"Aww, cute!" Marina squealed.

"Where are your pants though?" Samuel asked.

"Okay, so what's your point, old man. Why are you showing me this?" Ken asked, handing back the picture.

"To show you everyone gets old," getting down on one knee, Barney put his arm around Ken and pulled him closer, much to Ken's disgust. "One minute you're young, the next your face turns wrinkly and your hair starts falling out." Reaching behind his head, Barney pulled out several strands of his own hair and moved his arm around Ken again.

"Hey, lookie here, it seems your getting a head start!" Barney grinned, showing him the hair. "It won't be long until you start looking like me!"

Gasping at the hair, Ken shoved Barney away from him and ran off yelling, "ew, I don't want to look like you; that's a fate worse than death!"

Barney stood up and sighed. "That kid, I swear... now as for you two," holding out his hand, Samuel sighed and gave Barney his rigged token. Before he could say anything else, Marina spoke up.

"I'm sorry about cheating, but we had to do it. I need those tickets for something very important. Please give them back, I'm begging you."

Hearing Marina begging to him gave Barney a warm feeling in his underbelly. Biting the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling, Barney shook his head and lightly tapped the top of Marina's head with the tickets. "That's no excuse for cheating, young lady. Now go play fairly or next time I'll ban you from here for a week. And for goodness sake, stay in school next time. Your education should be your top priority; Samuel."

Both kids looked at each other and nodded their heads. As they were about to leave, Barney grabbed Samuel's wrist.

"Hold on, Samuel. I want to talk to you for a minute. Come with me."

Before Samuel could ask why, Barney was already walking off, pulling him along. Turning his head around, Samuel gave Marina a small wave and said, "sorry Marina."

Now alone and ticketless, Marina hung her head and went to Prize Corner. Stopping at the counter, she stared at the bike and sighed. "I'll never get that bike now, it's hopeless," sitting down next to the Music Box, Marina buried her face in her hands and sobbed.

"I'm so stupid... if I had done things right this morning, I could've avoided this whole situation. Well, it doesn't matter now, she probably wouldn't have accepted the bike anyways."

 _"Don't cry."_

"Huh?" startled by the voice, Marina looked up but saw no one. Suddenly, she felt something touch the top of her head. Springing to her feet, she spun around and saw it was the Marionette. Wiping her eyes, Marina took a step closer to it. "Was it— did you say something?"

Slowly, the Marionette extended its hand out to Marina and dropped a roll of tickets. Eyeing the tickets then the Marionette, Marina picked up the roll. Curious, she approached the box further and reached inside. To her surprise, she found several more rolls. Making sure no one was watching, Marina quickly grabbed all of them. Holding the rolls of tickets, Marina softly muttered, "I wonder if this is enough," as she slowly walked up to the counter.

The woman there who had her back turned the whole time, turned around and smiled. "See something you want, angel?"

"Yes, I do. I'd like that bike, please," Marina said, placing the tickets on the counter. "I hope this is enough."

Taking the tickets, the woman inserted them into the machine, tallying up the amount. Once it was done, she nodded her head approvingly and handed Marina the bike. "You must've been saving for a long time, hun. Well, enjoy your new bike and please wait until you're outside to ride it."

With the bike finally hers, Marina jumped for joy. Walking over to the Music Box, Marina patted the top and said, "you're the best, Marionette! thanks for your help!"

As she was leaving, Marina heard a fainted voice say, _"you're welcome."_ Turning around, she saw nothing there. Shrugging her shoulders, she left Prize Corner and headed back to the Dining Area.

"Talk about lucky! I can't believe I actually got it," Marina said, smiling at the bike. "I really hope Ken's right about what he said, but what if he's wrong? What if giving her the bike only makes things worse? Oh man, I really wish Ken was still here; maybe he could've talked to her first before I handed her the bike."

"Having a bit of a crises are we?"

Marina looked up and sighed sadly. "Hey, Mr. Miles. I got the bike."

"Yes, I see that; congratulations. So why are you bummed out?"

"Well, truth is I actually got this bike for Michelle. I kinda creeped her out this morning and well... Ken told me that she really wanted this bike so—"

"So instead you got it for her as a gift hoping to smooth things over, but now you're having second thoughts, yeah?"

Marina nodded her head. "I don't know what I should do."

Tapping his chin, Barney thought for a moment then said, "I got it. Give me the bike and if she shows up, I'll give it to her."

"That's real nice of you, but then she'll think it's from you."

"Don't worry, she won't; I guaranteed that," Barney assured Marina.

"Well... okay," Marina said, handing Barney the bike. "I'm counting on you." Barney smiled and nodded his head. As he was about to walk away, Marina said, "wait." Barney stopped and looked at her.

"Can I ask you something? Can the Marionette talk because when I was in Prize Corner, I could have sworn it spoke to me, and its eyes were also glowing white, which was strange since I've never seen it do that before." Seeing the confused look on Barney's face caused Marina to blush in embarrassment. "Eh, nevermind, forget. Just make sure you give her the bike, I'm counting on you!"

Marina hopped off, leaving Barney very confused and somewhat disturbed. _Glowing eyes..._ Peeking into Prize Corner, Barney stared at the Marionette's box, getting a chill down his spine.

* * *

"Stupid Chelsea, making me take inventory. I better hurry, Freddy's is going to close soon." With ten minutes left before closing time, Michelle darted into the restaurant and headed straight for Prize Corner. After months of saving up her tickets— plus Nathaniel saving up his own stash to give to her— Michelle finally had enough to purchase the bike she's been dreaming of. But when she arrived at Prize Corner, she saw that the bike was gone. Her heart fell in an instant.

"No, I'm too late," Michelle could feel tears pricking the back of her eyes. Upset, she kicked the nearby table and yelled several swears in french. Before she could kick the table again, Michelle felt a hand grab her shoulder.

"Excuse me, young lady, but could you not kick the table, please."

Michelle turned to see it was Barney.

"Sorry," Michelle muttered, wiping her eyes. "I'm just a little upset right now."

Noticing the bag of tickets in her hands, Barney smiled. "Well maybe this might cheer you up," Michelle dropped her tickets and gasped as Barney wheeled out the bicycle.

"Wha— but how... who— Mr. Miles did you—"

Barney shook his head. "A friend of yours got it for you. They were here all day doing whatever they could just so you could have your dream bike. They even went as far as to skip school."

Michelle snorted. "Mr. Miles, you got it all wrong. Nathaniel is my only friend and we were both at school today. Clearly, this bike is for someone else."

"Trust me, darling, it's for you," Barney said. "Your friend really went out of her way to get you this bike because she knew it would make you happy."

"She?" Michelle frowned, catching Barney's slip of the tongue. Now glaring at the bike, she muttered, "oh God, her again... I should have known. That dumb girl just can't take a hint..."

"Listen, Michelle," Barney said, placing his hands on her shoulder. "Sometimes, people do cruel things that they're not meaning to do. Realizing their mistakes, they panic and become reckless, making the whole situation worse. But that doesn't make them a bad person, it just means they're different on how they do things."

Michelle gave Barney a confused look, causing him to go red in the face a little. "What I'm trying to say is don't be so quick to judge; try putting yourself in her shoes. I'm not going to tell you what to do, but it wouldn't hurt to give her a chance and hear her out." Looking at the time, Barney waved goodbye at Michelle and walked out of the room.

Now alone, Michelle stared at the bike, thinking about what Barney had just to her. However, she was instantly pulled from her thoughts when she heard Barney's voice over the intercom.  
 _  
"Attention customers, Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria is now closing. Freddy and the Fazbear band will return during our business hours of 11am to 9pm all week, and don't forget tomorrow is Freddy Frenzy Friday; order any medium or large any topping pizza and get any desserts half off. We all hope you had fun and thank you for partying with us. Have a wonderful night."_


	14. Chapter 12: Message Received

_(A/N: Thanks for being patient with the delay! I wanted to get the last of the concept art of the characters out of the way (and also farm for Holiday loot boxes in Overwatch... w;; Also, sorry for the extra long chapter. I'll try shortening them a bit next time. x_x)_

 **Chapter 12: Message Received**

Despite getting the bike she really wanted, Michelle couldn't bring herself to ride it. So the next morning, she walked to school instead, all the while thinking about what Barney had said to her.

"Hey, Michelle, wait up!" Nathaniel called out, running up to her. "So, did you get the bike?"

Michelle nodded her head. "Yeah, I did."

"You don't sound too thrilled about it though. What's wrong?"

"I wasn't the one who purchased the bike; it was that girl."

"Girl? You mean the one from the animatronic incident?" Nathaniel gave Michelle a confused look. "Huh... that was... nice of her. Why do you think she did it?"

"Who knows, probably to boost her own ego; you know how these rich kids are," Michelle said. "What's worse is that she got Mr. Miles to give me the bike along with some dumb lecture. Rather than doing it herself, she got someone else to do it. Knowing her type, I bet she either paid Mr. Miles or threw a massive tantrum until he gave in. In this case, I'm going with the latter."

As they were approaching the school, Michelle groaned, pointing at the entrance. "Speak of the devil, it's her." Noticing Michelle and Nathaniel, Marina waved, running up to them. Michelle grabbed Nathaniel's arm and whispered, "don't make eye contact and don't say anything."

The two quickly walked past Marina, avoiding eye contact. But much to Michelle's annoyance, Marina caught up and kept walking along side them.

"Hi, Michelle. So did you like the bike? Sorry about not giving it to you in person, I was really nervous because I was afraid I would say something stupid and make things worse. But, um, anyway, about what happened yesterday and the day before that, I wanted to say sorry about–"

Before Marina could finish, Michelle tightened her grip on Nathaniel's arm and dashed inside the building. Nathaniel looked back at Marina, feeling guilty seeing the hurt look on her face.

"Hey, I get it; you got class to get to. I'll see you later then!" Marina called out before walking away.

Now at their lockers, Michelle released her grip on Nathaniel's arm, sighing in relief. "Man, I didn't think we'd ever get away from her. Annoying girl..."

"Michelle, um... don't you think it was kind of harsh doing that to her?" Nathaniel asked, carefully choosing his words. "I mean, she did get you your bike and was trying to apologize..."

"So?" Michelle huffed, balling up her fist. "I never asked her to get me the bike; she chose to do that. And if she was really sorry, she wouldn't have given me that perverted gift basket! I'm not stupid, Nathaniel, I know exactly what she's planning and I'll be darned if I have a repeat of what happened last year... so yeah, I'm not going to forgive her."

Nathaniel gave Michelle a sympathetic look and patted her shoulder. Before he could say anything, the bell rang, indicating that class was starting soon. Nathaniel looked at Michelle and gave her a weak smile. "I'll see you after school, alright?" Michelle nodded her head and waved good-bye. Looking into the room, she groaned, wishing Nathaniel was in her class.

"Well, let's just get this over with."

Walking into the classroom, Michelle already knew her day wasn't going to be easy when she saw a group of girls staring at her, whispering and giggling. When she approached her desk, she saw the words "FREAK" and "LOSER", along with some other harsh names, written all over it. Since this was a daily thing that happens, Michelle rolled her eyes and took out some cleaning supplies from her backpack. Once the top was cleaned off, she noticed an awful smell coming from inside her desk. Opening it, Michelle was disgusted to find a dead squirrel. At this point, the group of giggling girls burst into laughter. When the other kids saw what was inside Michelle's desk, some pulled their desk away while others snickered.

Michelle was about to remove the squirrel when suddenly, the teacher walked into the classroom and was immediately hit by the awful stench. Walking over to Michelle's desk, the teacher covered her mouth and gagged.

"Oh good lord, that's disgusting! DuBois, what is the meaning of this?!"

"It's her lunch, Mrs. K.; she didn't have time to bag it," a girl in the back said.

"Paula, hush. DuBois, get this out of my classroom now, and be quick about it!"

Using a trash bag, Michelle grabbed the squirrel carcass and sealed it inside. She was about to discard the bag into the trash bin when the teacher shrieked.

"Not in there!" Just toss it out the window or something, you're holding up class as it is." Rushing over to the window, Michelle dumped the bag outside as her teacher continued to nag her. "This is the tenth time this month you've held up class because you had to fish out something gross from your desk, DuBois. I want it to stop."

Returning to her desk, Michelle grimaced at a puddle of foul-smelling reddish-brown liquid left behind by the squirrel. Seeing as her teacher was annoyed enough, Michelle decided to clean up the rest during lunch time.

Once Michelle was seated, the teacher went to her desk and pulled out her lesson planner. "Now that Miss DuBois is done wasting our time, shell we get started?"

As the day went on, Michelle found herself starting to doze off. For over a week, she's been plagued with a reoccurring nightmare that has caused her to wake several times in the night screaming. To keep herself awake, Michelle pulled out her special journal and tried piecing together what her dream meant. Somehow she felt certain that her dream was connected to the Marionette, but the question was how. Looking back on past pages with notes she obtained from the animatronic, Michelle began trying to decipher the cryptic messages.

 _I know my dream is connected to you, Bebe, but how?_

"Michelle."

 _What are you trying to tell me?_

"Michelle."

 _How can I help you?_

"MICHELLE!"

"Huh, what?" Michelle was pulled from her thoughts by the teacher's booming voice. The class chuckled at Michelle's reaction while the teacher rolled her eyes.

"I said please read the next two paragraphs for us."

"Oh, uh, right, um..." realizing she had no clue on what part of the chapter the class was on, Michelle gave the teacher a sheepish grin. "What page are we on again?"

The teacher groaned, shaking her head and covering her face with her hands. "Why do I even bother with you? Paula, since you have a longer attention span, would you mind reading the next paragraphs?"

"Of course, Mrs. K.," Paula said smugly. "And please try keeping up this time, Michelle."

Michelle growled and sank a little in her seat, embarrassed by being called out and having the class laugh at her.

Luckily for her, the rest of the day went without incident and soon it was time to go home. Nathaniel entered Michelle's class and approached her as she was putting her things away.

"Let's go to Freddy's. I still have all those tickets saved up, so let's spend them."

"I'm sorry, Michelle, I forgot I have choir practice today; I can't go," Nathaniel informed Michelle. "Please don't be mad."

Michelle sighed sadly. "It's okay, I understand."

"You want me to wait outside for you?"

"No, you go on ahead, I'll see you tomorrow."

Waving goodbye to Nathaniel, Michelle continued putting her things away when suddenly, someone bumped into her desk, causing the books on top to fall on the floor. Michelle groaned and bent over to pick them up, but before she could grab her journal, someone else picked it up.

"Hi, Michelle."

Looking up with a scowl, Michelle spat out, "Paula."

"You seemed really distracted today. Were you thinking about your band mates back at the pizzeria?" Paula jeered, causing her friends to laugh.

"Paula, I'm really not in the mood for this," Michelle grounded out.

"Ooo she's really mad now! Careful, Paula, Chica here might use that ouija board of hers to conjure up a spirit to go after you," one of Paula's friends said.

Feeling her anger rising, Michelle tried to snatch her journal away from Paula but was then held down by two of Paula's friends, each of them grabbing her arm. "Give me back my journal, Paula!"

"I'll 'geeve eet back' when I'm done reading it," Paula said, flipping through the pages. turning to the recent page, she smiled. "Oh my gosh, you guys, listen to this:

"'I had that dream again. I'm standing outside a small diner looking through the window crying, while everyone else is inside having fun and enjoying a birthday party. Suddenly, a man approaches me from behind. I can't quite make out what he looks like or what he's saying, but his words are comforting. For a moment, my tears stop, but as I take step towards him, he quickly wraps his hands around my neck. I beg him to stop, but he just grins and tightens his grip. I struggle and accidentally hit him with my shoe, causing him to yell at me and crush my windpipe. Blood fills my mouth and as my vision fades to black, I gaze into the Shadow Man's black eyes one last time before I'm awoken by my screams. This has been happening for over a week and I can't help but feel this is somehow connected with the Marionette–' Oh my gosh, you're so delusional, DuBois!"

Paula and her friends busted out laughing. Using the journal, she slapped Michelle on top of the head. "You know, this is why you don't have any friends."

"I have Nathaniel, I don't need anyone else," Michelle growled.

"Oh please, he's just being nice to you. Have you ever asked yourself why someone like him would want to hang out with you? He's smart, handsome, and cool while you're dumb, ugly, and weird. It's disgusting that you even go to the same school as us."

Narrowing her eyes, Michelle responded by spitting a big loogie in Paula's face. Paula screamed and slapped Michelle across the face while her friend threw her to the ground, kicking her hard. With the journal still in hand, Paula grabbed Michelle's backpack.

"C'mon, let's go while she's still in pain!" Paula shouted, darting out of the classroom.

With Paula's friends no longer kicking her, Michelle scrambled to her feet and dashed after them, gritting her teeth and bearing through the pain. "Give me back my stuff, Paula!"

Rushing out of the building, Paula threw Michelle's journal and backpack on the ground and began stomping on it along with two of her friends. When Michelle caught up, she tried to stop them but was then tripped by Paula's third friend, causing her to land face first on the pavement. With a smirk on her face, Paula walked up to Michelle and kicked her several times in the ribs.

"This is what happens when you mess with me, you little creep!" Delivering on last kick, she then said, "do everyone a favor and disappear. It's not like you'd be missed anyway." With those final words, Paula and her friends left.

Michelle slowly stumbled to her feet and limped her way over to where her items were thrown. Gathering her things and brushing off the dirt, she looked up and saw Marina standing by the gate entrance staring at her.

"Thanks for the help, I hope you enjoyed the show!" Michelle snapped, storming past Marina.

"Michelle, wait up!" Marina called out, running after her. Instead of stopping, Michelle ran faster, but much to her annoyance, Marina kept following her. "Listen, I just wanted to say–"

 ** _THWACK!_**

Michelle abruptly stopped, spun around and punched Marina in the face, sending her flying backward onto the sidewalk. Panting, Michelle stood there with her fist balled up. Marina slowly sat up and stared at Michelle wide-eyed with blood pouring out of her nose.

"I don't care what you have to say, okay! You're just like them anyways," Michelle growled, feeling tears of frustration prick her eyes. "You're such a weirdo, a nuisance! STAY AWAY FROM ME, YOU STALKER!"

Michelle ran as fast as she could before Marina could even respond to her comment. Once she was a good distance away from Marina, Michelle stopped behind an old building and fell to her knees, sobbing. Tears of frustration and anger ran down her cheeks as she yelled and stomped on some empty, discarded soda cans that littered the ground. This went on for about fifteen minutes until Michelle was able to calm herself down enough to make her way over to Freddy's. She didn't bother ordering anything though. Instead, she sat at a vacant table in the Dining area to collect her thoughts.

Taking a deep breath, Michelle took out her journal to see what damaged was caused by Paula and her friends. To her relief and surprise, only the front and back cover was slightly torn and dirty while some of the pages were bent with dirt covering the edges.

Thank God," Michelle breathed a sigh of relief. Opening her backpack to put away her journal, she realized she still had the ouija board with her. She brought it to show it to Nathaniel and see if he wanted to use it, but unfortunately, he had other plans.

Suddenly, an idea popped into her head that made her smile.

Gathering her things, she made her way over to Prize Corner. _I can't believe I never thought of this before! If I truly want answers from the Marionette, she can tell me through the board!_ However, when Michelle arrived, she saw two employees repairing the Prize Box, but the Marionette was nowhere in sight.

"Excuse me, where is the Marionette?" Michelle asked.

"I don't know, back room probably," one of the employees gruffed out. "But no kids allowed back there, you got it? Just be patient."

"Okay, I will. Thank you." Michelle said, walking off. Immediately she went to the Parts and Services room and sure enough, she saw the Marionette leaning against the wall. But to her dismay, there were two people in the room as well.

She needed to get rid of them, but how? Suddenly, she heard a voice behind her.

"Hey there, Cupcake, let's party!"

Michelle jumped up and spun around. She groaned when she realized it was just Toy Chica. Frustrated she tried shooing the animatronic away. "Go away you ugly, scrawny bird, you're annoying! Everyone hates you!"

Toy Chica giggled. "Do you want to sing a song with me?"

"No! I want you to shut your be–" a devious smiled stretched across Michelle's face as those words left her mouth. Making sure no one was looking, she stood on Toy Chica's feet and reached up, grabbing her beak and pulling it off with ease. She then spotted a group of little kids running around in one of the party rooms and decided to use them to his advantage.

"Hey, Chica! Fetch!"

Throwing the beak into the room, Michelle watched as the animatronic went after it. When the children saw beakless Toy Chica, their laughter turned into screams of pure terror. The two employees in the back room heard the children's screams and ran out to see what the problem was.

"What's goin– WHOA! Where's her beak?!"

"Who cares, we have to stop her!"

With the two employees distracted, Michelle wasted no time slipping in and grabbing the Marionette. Though it wasn't heavy, its long limbs made it difficult to carry. Wrapping the arms and legs around her neck and torso, Michelle from the area and out of the emergency exit.

Now that she was behind the building, Michelle set the Marionette on the ground in a sitting position and took out her ouija board. She then opened her journal to a blank page and smiled. "I hope you don't mind if I log our conversation." With everything set, Michelle began.

"Bebe, are you there?"

Nothing.

"Hello, are you–"

Suddenly the planchette moved.

 _ **Yes.**_

Michelle smiled. "Are you the one responsible for my reoccurring nightmare?

 ** _Yes._**

"Why?

 ** _Warning_**

"About what? What are you trying to tell me?" Silence again. Michelle decided to ask an easier question. "Will you tell me your real name?"

 ** _No._**

"Why not?

 _ **Because he'll know. He's always watching– listening.**_

"Who is always watching and listening– the man from my dreams?" Once again, silence. But this time, Michelle wasn't going to accept that and push the subject further. "You have to tell me! How can I help you if you won't tell me anything! Being vague isn't real useful for trying to warn someone, ya know! So tell me how I can help you!"

 _ **You can't.  
**_  
"Please, Bebe, let me help you!"

Suddenly, the planchette slid wildly, spelling out "you can't" over and over. Michelle looked up and saw the Marionette slightly slumped over. Its face was contorted into a frown and it's once blank eyes were filled with two bright lights. Michelle started to get scared and shouted.

"Please stop!"

The planchette shot off the board past Michelle's head, then she someone behind her scream. Michelle gasped when she saw Marina staring at her wide-eyed. Michelle's face turned a bright red as a flurry of emotions stirred within her. She opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it when she couldn't get the words out. Finally, after an awkward moment of silence, Michelle spoke.

"How long have you been standing there?" She asked. Now it was Marina's turn to open her mouth and then close it. "Why are you here? I thought I told you to stay away from me."

Marina picked the planchette off the ground and just stared at it. Finally, she said, "what was that I just saw... how did you..."

Before Michelle could respond, one of the cooks who was taking out the trash spotted them and gasped. "So this is where the Marionette was; you two stole it!"

Michelle was about to shout out some random excuse, but was then cut off by Marina who said, "it was me, I took the Marionette! She had nothing to do with it."

The cook looked at both girls, then turned her full attention to Marina. "Don't move, I'll be right back."

Marina waited until the cook was gone, then she said to Michelle, "we don't have much time, go while you still can. I'll take the fall."

Michelle shook her head, but Marina was having none it and pushed her forward. "Go!" Michelle really didn't want to get in trouble, so she reluctantly took Marina's advice and bolted. However, a part of her didn't want to leave Marina behind, so she hid around the corner as the cook returned with Barney and two other employees whose names she couldn't remember.

"Young lady, I'm very unhappy with you right now," Barney said, giving Marina a pointed look. "What did I tell you about touching the animatronics?"

"Not to do it," Marina replied softly.

"And yet you still did! Do you have any idea how much it would cost us if these animatronics get damaged? They're not toys!" Lawrence scolded.

"I'm sorry, I just wanted to play with her," Marina said sweetly. "I promise not to do it again."

Scott, who had remained quiet up until this point, exhaled loudly and looked at Barney. "You see what happens when you let trouble making kids off the hook; they just go back and do it again. I told you to stop being so lenient with them, Mr. Miles. This is the fourth time this girl has violated our rules. Now either you do something about it or I will."

"Yes sir, I'll take care of it..."

Scott nodded his head and left with Lawrence and the female cook following behind him. Barney turned his attention to Marina who had her hands out like she was waiting for him to put cuffs on her.

"Well come on then, you know my parents numbers," she said.

"Okay, you can drop the act, Marina," Barney then looked over to the side of the building. "Michelle, honey, I know you're there; come on out."

Michelle came out of her hiding spot and stood next to Marina, ignoring her intense wide-eyed glare.

"Dude! you were supposed to leave, why are you still here?!" Marina hissed through clenched teeth.

"I don't take orders from you!" Michelle spat.

"Okay, you two, enough," Barney said, breaking up the girls banter. "You know, I'm more upset at the fact you two didn't run off with the Marionette. I hate that creepy thing." Michelle frowned at Barney's comment but didn't say anything.

"But in all seriousness, you shouldn't have taken it. Michelle."

"Wha– how did you know it was me?" Michelle asked, surprised.

"I caught a glimpse of you on the security cam before you ran out of shot," Barney smiled. "It didn't take much to put two and two together."

Michelle looked down at her shoes and mumbled. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah, I'm sorry too," Marina apologized, "because of me, you got chewed out by your boss."

"Don't worry it," Barney said. "Unfortunately, he's right. I really can't let this slide, so for breaking the rules again, you two are banned from here for a week, understand?"

Michelle understood why she was in trouble, but Marina didn't do anything. So it surprised her when Marina just nodded her head and accepted her punishment without question. "Now hold on. Marina didn't do–"

Barney pinched both girls cheeks and pulled on them. "She lied about it; that's bad, got it?"

"Ow, ow! Yes, yes, ow!" Michelle cried.

"Ow! Okay, okay, please stop, Mr. Miles!" Marina cried out too.

"Good." Letting go of their cheeks, Barney purposely ruffled their hair and smirked at the intense glare the two girls shot him. Slinging the Marionette over his shoulder, Barney stopped and looked down at the ouija board on the ground.

"Oh wow, a ouija board! I remember when my sister and I made one of these. She convinced me that my great grandfather was trying to come back from the dead to give me a bowl-cut. I was so scared that I slept with a shower cap on every night and would sneak into my parents room to sleep with them. After a week, my father got tired of me kicking him awake so he tore up our board." Barney chuckled recalling the memory.

Michelle on the other hand, did not.

"A ouija board is not something to mess with. You can cause real serious damage and even put yourself in danger."

"Well I'm sure Hasbro will forgive me," Barney said. He shook his finger at the two and added, "Now don't you two be conjuring up any spirits now, ya hear? We can't afford the Ghostbusters." And with that, he walked off with the Marionette.

The two girls stood staring at each other not really knowing what to say. After a minute, Michelle decided to break the silence.

"I never asked for your help, you know," Michelle said.

Marina looked down at her shoes and shrugged. "I know."

"You realize you got in trouble for absolutely no reason, right?"

"Well, I wouldn't say that. I did lie to the man, not to mention all the trouble I caused him these past few days with the whole animatronic incident and Ken and Samuel helping me cheat to get you that bike."

Michelle raised an eyebrow "You cheated to get me the bike?"

"Well we tried winning the tickets fairly, but it was taking so long and I was afraid someone would snatch it before I got a chance to get to it. So then we cheated and were caught by Mr. Miles who then confiscated our winnings. I was so upset that I ran to Prize Corner and bawled my eyes out, but then the strangest thing happened. The Marionette came out of its box and gave me the tickets! Weird, huh?"

Michelle was taken back by Marina's story. No one except for Nathaniel had ever went out of their way for her like that. Now she was truly conflicted. A part of her was still angry and resentful towards Marina for all the trouble she put her through, but the other half was kind of touched that despite everything, she still went through so much just for her. She had never had another girl show her this much kindness before so she didn't know what to think. But one thing was for certain. The pain in her ribs was nothing compared to the sudden wave of guilt that hit her when she remembered how she punched Marina in the face and called her terrible names. The pain only grew when she saw Marina's shirt had dried blood on it and her nose was pretty swollen.

"Hey, how's your nose?" Michelle asked, looking at the ground.

"Marina lightly touched her nose. "I'll be fine, it's not as bad as it looks. What about you, are you in any pain?"

Michelle was actually in a lot of pain, but she didn't want to show it, so she just shrugged her shoulders. "I'll manage. Um... sorry about punching you in the face."

Marina was surprised to hear Michelle apologize to her. She smiled and shook her head. "You have nothing to apologize for, I'm the one who's sorry. I should have helped you, but instead, I stood there like a big idiot while that girl beat you up. And about what happened at the grand reopening and the gift basket incident, I want to say I'm truly sor–"

"You'll have to forgive me, but my ribs are starting to bother me, so I better head home now to rest," Michelle said, putting her ouija board in her backpack. She wasn't lying about her pain, but the real truth was she wasn't ready to accept Marina's apology yet. She needed time to cool off and collect her thoughts. Marina, on the other hand, was deflated

"Oh, um... yeah, I, uh, better get home to. My parents found out about me skipping school and were not too pleased, hahaa..." Michelle nodded her head and turned to walk away, but was stopped by Marina. "Wait! Um... about what happened with the Marionette..." Marina had many questions about what she had witnessed earlier, but she was worried that asking Michelle about it would only make her angry, so she just handed Michelle the planchette.

"Here, you dropped this."

"Thanks," Michelle said slowly, sticking the planchette in her pocket. She waited for a moment to see if Marina would finish her question, but she didn't. So Michelle decided to head home.

"Hey, do you want me to walk you home?" Marina called out.

"No thank you," Michelle said a bit too harshly. Realizing it, she then added in a nicer tone, "but thank you for offering, I appreciate it."

Marina smiled and watched as Michelle headed home. Even though she still wasn't able to apologize for everything, she at least managed to have a decent conversation with Michelle and let her know how she felt, and that alone was enough to fill Marina with hope.


	15. Chapter 13: Hidden Secrets

**Chapter 13: Hidden secrets**

"What? You can't go there for a week and you're grounded? Man, that sucks!"

It was a cold, rainy Monday morning when Samuel was lying in bed talking to Marina on the phone. During the days Marina was trying to resolve her issues with Michelle, Samuel was dealing with his own problems. He had recently returned home after running off a few days ago to stay with his mom at a nearby motel downtown to get away from his uncle. But after awhile, Samuel's mother grew tired of his company and told him to return home, which he reluctantly did. He knew his uncle was furious with him so he made a mental note to steer clear of the man and not be alone with him

However, on this particular day, he wasn't so lucky.

"Well, look on the bright side, at least you were able to talk to her," Samuel said, leaning against the headboard.

"True," Marina sighed. "Well, anyways, how are you doing over there? Did your uncle... I mean, has he... hurt you in any way since you came back?"

"Thankfully no, but only because I've been around my aunt and cousin. As long as I'm not alone with him, the worst he can do is ground me." As soon as he said those words, Samuel heard his uncle calling his name, followed by thundering footsteps going up the stairs.

"Hey, Samuel, I got a bone to pick with you!"

"Speak of the devil," Samuel muttered. His wasn't worried until he heard the tone in his uncle's voice, then he started to panic a little. "Oh no, you've got to be kidding me. I got to go, I'll take you later." No sooner did he hung up the phone, that his bedroom door swung open, revealing a large, angry man glaring daggers at him.

"Your teachers called and said you hadn't been in all week! Why is that?!"

"I was sick, okay, lay off," Samuel answered, averting his eyes away from his uncle's stern gaze. "Besides, I did all of last week's work in advance, so I didn't miss anything."

"That's not the point, dumbass! And you weren't sick, you went to visit that whore again, didn't you?" Samuel's uncle growled, grabbing Samuel by his collar.

"That whore is my mother– your sister– so show her some respect!" Samuel snapped, receiving a hard slap to the face.

"Don't you talk to me that way!" His uncle shouted, delivering another hard slap. "Whether you want to hear it or not, it doesn't change the fact that your mother is a dirty whore who doesn't care about you! Now go get ready for school, you damn ingrate!"

Samuel rubbed his cheek and made his way over to his closet. Since he was mostly dressed, all he needed was a jacket. While he was searching for one, his uncle sat impatiently on his bed, glaring at him.

"You know, for someone with a really high IQ, you're pretty retarded, Samuel," he heard his uncle say. "Of course, that is to be expected considering that your mother did everything in her power to try and abort you. Drugs, alcohol, you name it! I'm actually surprised you came out normal. Well, as normal as you can get considering your little... body condition."

Samuel had heard enough. Now just wanting to get away from his uncle, he grabbed the first jacket he saw, tied his hair in a messy braid, grabbed his backpack, and stormed out of the room with his uncle following close behind. When Samuel was halfway down the stairs, his uncle punched him in the back of the head, causing him to topple the rest of the way down, landing face first on the floor.

Samuel's uncle rolled Samuel on his back and crouched down. "That's for running off and worrying your aunt to death, you ungrateful parasite," standing up, his uncle then kicked him repeatedly in the abdomen. "And this is for walking off while I was talking to you! I took you in from the kindness of my heart and this is how you repay me?! You'd be dead if it wasn't for me!"

With his anger slowly going away, Samuel's uncle lifted Samuel to his feet and inspected the damage to his body.

"Damn looks like I busted your lip a bit when I slapped you back there... uh, well, that's not good."

"I'll just say a bully did it," Samuel said flatly. From an early age, Samuel learned that showing any emotions would only end with more punishments, so he trained himself to shut them all down whenever he ended up in these situations. "Can I eat breakfast before I go?"

"Oh, I threw out your breakfast," Samuel's uncle said, rubbing the back of his neck. "But we can just pick some up on the way."

"Wha— Really, you're going to walk me to school?" Samuel asked, surprised. "I— I appreciate it, especially after I—" Samuel froze when he noticed his uncle's sinister grin while dangling a pair of car keys in front of him.

"How about we take the long way today?"

Suddenly all the emotions Samuel had been holding back broke loose and fear overtook him. He made a dash for the front door but because of his long hair, his uncle was able to grab it and pull Samuel back towards him. His uncle then picked him up and carried him to the garage.

"NO, LET ME GO! NO, STOP, DON'T MAKE ME GO IN THERE! I WON'T RUN AWAY OR SKIP SCHOOL EVER AGAIN, JUST LET ME GO, PLEASE UNCLE CREVAN!" Samuel shouted at the top of his lungs, struggling fiercely and trying to grab hold of the doorframe. When his uncle approached the car, Samuel's desperate shouts turned into screams of pure terror.

"Quit acting like a little bitch and stop your damn struggling!" Samuel's uncle commanded, opening the passenger side door. "You got to get over your idiotic fear sometime!"

"Let me go!" In a desperate attempt, Samuel lifted his leg and shouted, " I said LET ME GO!" With all his might, Samuel swung his leg back and kicked his uncle hard in the groin, causing the man to topple over and drop him on the cemented floor. Samuel saw that the garage door was open enough for him to slip through, so he scrambled to feet and dashed for it. He managed to kick his backpack through, but before he could make his escape, his uncle grabbed hold of his jacket.

"Come here, you're not going anywhere!"

Samuel shrieked and quickly removed his jacket. Wasting no time, he slid under the garage door and into the harsh, cold outside air. Samuel grabbed his backpack and ran as fast as he could while his uncle laid on the floor, yelling and cursing his name.

Samuel kept running until his lungs began to burn from the cold air. He stopped at a convenient store to catch his breath and look for something to eat. When he walked in, a few customers and cashiers raised their eyebrows at his messy appearance and heavy breathing. Raising his own eyebrow at everyone's strange looks, Samuel picked up a mirror on display and grimaced at his appearance. In addition to the marks his uncle left on hm, Samuel now had a bloody nose, a scrapped cheek, and a large lump on his forehead. _Shit. No wonder they're all looking at me like that; I look awful!_ Samuel thought to himself. _Well, nothing I can do about it now. I better go buy something to eat and then head off to school._

Samuel walked down several aisles, grabbing his favorite snacks. _There. Now I got my breakfast and lunch. Hmm, perhaps I should grab another candy bar._ Lost in thought, Samuel wasn't paying attention to where he was walking and ended up bumping into a man, causing him to drop several doughnuts.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Here, let me get that for you."

"Samuel?"

"Mr. Miles? What are you doing here and where's your uniform?" Samuel asked, noticing the man's casual attire consisting of a white turtle neck, a brown jacket, blue jeans, and a scarf.

"I'm getting doughnuts for my coworkers and my suit is at the cleaners. Now why are you here and what happened to you? You look awful!" Barney said, examining Samuel's injuries.

Samuel shrugged his shoulders. Deep down he really wanted to tell the man everything: all the abuse his uncle puts him through daily, but he couldn't bring himself to do it so he simply lied. "I got jumped by some bullies, no big deal."

"Yeah tell that to your busted lip and bloodied nose," Barney said, licking a napkin and using it to clean the blood off Samuel's face. "There, all clean. Man, those bullies really did a number on you, huh?" Barney stood up and turned back to the doughnut case where he refilled the box.

"So, why are you here anyway?" Barney asked, walking up to the counter to pay. "You're not planning on skipping are you?"

"No sir, I'm here to buy some breakfast," Samuel replied, following the man. When he pulled out his wallet, he saw it was empty and remembered that all of his cash was still in his jacket, which was at home. "Oh... on second thought, I'll just skip breakfast." Samuel was about to put his items back, but to his surprise, Barney took it from him and placed it on the counter with his items.

"Oh no you're not. You're already skinny as it is," Barney said, taking out his wallet.

"Mr. Miles, that's really kind of you, but you don't have to do this," Samuel said.

Barney paid for everything then handed Samuel his items. "Yeah I do. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so no more arguing, okay?"

Samuel took the items and smiled. "Thank you." He was about to leave when Barney stopped him.

"Wait a minute, I notice you don't have a coat on. Don't tell me you don't have one." When Samuel failed to answer, Barney shook his head. He then removed his scarf and wrapped it around Samuel's neck. "I swear, you kids these days are so careless with your health. It's not much but this scarf will keep your neck warm."

Samuel looked at the scarf then at Barney. "Mr. Miles, this is awfully kind of you. I don't know what to say."

"Think nothing of it. It's only natural for adults to look after kids," Barney said as he and Samuel exited the store. The two shivered as the cold wind hit them. "It's getting a bit colder. Do you want a ride to school, I don't mind taking you."

Samuel immediately shook his head. "Uh, n—no thank you, I'll just walk; it's not that far anyway. Besides, the weather should warm up by this afternoon, but thank you for offering. I'll see you later." Samuel said, waving goodbye.

Once the two went their separate ways, Samuel couldn't stop thinking about what Barney had done along with what he said to him.

 _"It's only natural for adults to look after kids"_

Maybe for others, but not his family. Growing up, Samuel never really had any adult fuss over him like that, so this was a new concept to him. Wrapping part of the scarf around his face, Samuel could smell Barney's cologne, which made him smile. It was as if Barney was still with him. _So this is what it's like to have an adult care about you. It's nice,_ Samuel thought to himself as he approached the school.

* * *

Because Samuel has missed all of last week, he had to stay after school, which was fine by him since he mostly stayed after school anyways due to club activities. When Samuel got out around four o' clock, his cousin Connor was already waiting for him. Since Samuel was in high school, he got out earlier than Connor, who was in middle school, which was another reason why he liked staying after school.

That and also because he didn't want to go home alone.

"Hey, let's go to that new arcade that opened up," Connor said.

"Sure, but let's stop Freddy's first. I have to return something to a friend," Samuel said, looking at the scarf around his neck. With the temperature now warmer, Samuel felt it was best to give Barney his scarf back.

The two kids were about to leave when they heard a car beep at them. It was Samuel's aunt. She stepped out of the vehicle and approached them.

"There you are, Connor. Your father wants us to go pick up dinner, so I'm gonna need your help," Samuel's aunt said.

Connor groaned and got into the car. Before Samuel could ask where he should meet them, his aunt gave him a stern look.

"I know what you did," she said, "your uncle wants you home immediately."

Samuel shook his head and started to back away. Usually, he would have complied since he was used to this, but for the first time, he felt scared. "No..."

His aunt gently placed her hands on his shoulder. "Don't make this any harder than it needs to be," she said softly. "Just accept it and get it over with, okay?"

"N-no! I refuse to be his punching bag again!" With that, Samuel turned and ran as fast as he could, ignoring his aunt as she tried calling him back. He ran until he made it to Freddy's. Once he was inside, Samuel stopped to catch his breath and collect his thoughts. _I can't believe I actually did that; what's wrong with me?!_ He thought to himself. _Well, it can't be helped. I better go return Mr. Miles' scarf back and then go home to face the music._

Samuel tightened the scarf around his neck and went off to search for Barney. Normally, he would have found the man right away, but today he had no luck. He checked the Game Room, Kid's Cove, Prize Corner, and even the Dining Area, but still no sign of Barney.

At this point, Samuel was getting frustrated.

"Don't tell me you left early, Miles. C'mon man, where are you?"

"If you don't know where he is then maybe asking yourself isn't the best option," a familiar voice said behind Samuel.

"Oh, hey there, Bunny Boy," Samuel said to Ken, taking notice of the big, floppy bunny ears on Ken's jacket hood. "Listen, I'm looking for Mr. Miles, have you seen him?"

"Uh, yeah. Actually, I think that's him over there," Ken said, pointing at a crowd. When Samuel turned around trying to spot Barney, Ken reached into his backpack and giggled. "Oh wait, here he is!"

Samuel turned back around expecting to see Barney but instead came face to face with a crudely made puppet design to look like him. "Hiya, kid, it's me, your pal, Barney Miles!" Ken said in a goofy voice. "I heard you were looking for me."

Samuel narrowed his eyes at Ken. "I meant the real one, Ken. C'mon!" He exasperated with a stomp of his foot. Ken, on the other hand just grinned.

"What are ya talkin' about, kid; I am the real one! Can't you tell by my loud, annoying voice and the way I just keep talking and talking without ever shutting up?" Ken laughed but saw that Samuel wasn't. He frowned and went back to his normal voice. "Seriously, not even a smile?"

On any other day, Samuel would've found that a bit funny, but since he had so much going on at the moment, laughing was the last thing on his mind. Just then, Samuel saw another familiar face walk up to Ken carrying two drinks.

"Ken put that thing away; it's rude and insensitive. Honestly, I can't believe you even made that thing," Nathaniel said, handing Ken his drink. When he saw Samuel staring at him, Nathaniel gave an awkward little wave. "Oh... uh, hello."

"H—hey, uh... Polka-brows boyfriend, yeah?" Samuel said, rubbing the back of his neck. He didn't know why he felt awkward talking to Nathaniel. It's not like they had any beef with each other— only Marina and Michelle did. Of course, that's probably why they felt awkward talking to each other. Wanting to break the tension, Samuel went ahead and asked Nathaniel, "have you seen Mr. Miles, I seriously need to find him."

Nathaniel blushed as being referred to as Michelle's boyfriend but decided not to comment on it. He then shook his head at Samuel's question. "I did see him earlier ordering food, but left after Ken grossed him out with his nose flossing trick," Nathaniel looked at Ken, who only grinned while taking a sip of his drink.

Samuel sighed sadly then turned to leave. "Well, thanks for telling me," he said, walking off.

"Wait a second, Red, you can't leave yet," Ken said, grabbing Samuel's arm. "You can come hang with us."

"I really don't—"

"Yeah! In fact, you can help us find proof on the animatronic people and the secret room!"

"Ken, that's just a myth," Nathaniel said.

"Wait, what are we talking about here?" Samuel asked.

"I'm talking about the legend of the pizzeria. They say the owner originally built this place for his daughter, but after a freak accident that cost the girl her life, he fell into a deep depression and started building animatronics that looked like people in hopes of luring children to their demise. Rumor has it that there's a secret room hidden somewhere in this restaurant where the owner resides, waiting for his next victim." Ken told Samuel.

"That sounds... cool, but I really should—"

"Should totally join us! C'mon, Red, you look pretty miserable and who knows, we may even run into Mr. Miles," Ken said. "So what do you say?"

Samuel thought for a moment then nodded his head. "Okay, I'm in. So where do we start?"

"Well, since we're looking for a secret room we should probably look for something that seems out of place, like a wall or something," Ken said.

And so, Ken, Nathaniel, and Samuel began looking around the pizzeria, searching for anything out of the ordinary. About two hours later, they turned up nothing. At this point, Ken and Samuel were both getting frustrated.

"How are we not finding anything?!" Ken exasperated.

"This is pointless... I should've just gone home," Samuel muttered.

"Can't find something that doesn't exist, Ken," Nathaniel said. "I'm sorry, but we looked everywhere."

Ken was about to give up when something came to his mind. "That's it! We've been looking in all the wrong place. The secret room wouldn't be where customers could get to it. It would in a place only the employees— i.e the employees— can go to. Quickly, to the Parts and Services room!" Ken dashed off, not bothering to wait for Nathaniel and Samuel.

"Wait, Ken, come back!" Nathaniel said as him and Samuel quickly followed after. Ken was so caught up in the excitement of what he may find that he failed to notice the employee walking out of the Parts and Services room. Seeing as Ken was going to bump into the man, Nathaniel shouted. "Ken, look out!"

Unfortunately, Ken couldn't stop in time and ended up slamming into the man and falling backward. Nathaniel and Samuel rushed to Ken to make sure he was alright. Once they saw he was, Nathaniel sighed in relief and turned to the man.

"I'm very sorry, sir. Are you oka—"

Suddenly, Nathaniel froze, staring mouth agape at the man before him. His all too familiar face sent a chill down Nathaniel's spine. His throat went dry as he tried speaking. "H—h—how... y—you're—"

"You're that fatass Ray that hit Michelle!" Ken exclaimed, sitting up.

"It's Roy," Roy corrected, "and yeah, it's me, what of it?"

"Why are you here, I thought you got fired!" Samuel said.

"Well you thought wrong, princess," Roy sneered, flicking Samuel's forehead. Realizing what he did, Roy nervously looked at the surveillance camera that was in the room. Turning back to the three, he said, "look, just stay out of my way. I'm already on thin ice as it is..." Roy then stepped back into the room and slammed the door shut.

The three kids looked at each other in confusion. Then what Roy had said made Samuel realize something.

"Of course, the security office!" Samuel exclaimed as he ran off.

"Ooo, we might something there too! Brilliant Red!" Ken said, following behind with Nathaniel, who let out a sigh.

When the three arrived, they found Barney sitting at the desk, writing something down while looking at the security cams. He was unaware of their presence until Ken went around the desk and started searching around it.

"Okay, I'm on to you. Where's the hidden room?" Ken demanded. "I know you know, Rent-a-cop, or should I say Robocop!" He then pinched and pulled Barney's arm.

"OW! Quit it!" Barney said, grabbing Ken's wrist. "Now what's this about a hidden room?"

Nathaniel rushed over and grabbed Ken. "I am so sorry, sir. There's a silly rumor going around and Ken got caught in the excitement of it. You know how kids can be," Nathaniel nervously laughed. "We'll be leaving now; come on, Ken."

"But we just got here and I still haven't looked around!" Ken protested as Nathaniel started to drag him away. Taking one last look at Barney, Ken pointed his finger at him. "You can't hide your secrets forever. I'll be back!" Once the two were gone, Barney sighed and shook his head.

"I swear that kid is going to be the death of me," he muttered. Noticing Samuel was still there, Barney raised his eyebrow. "Do you need something?"

Samuel walked around the desk and handed Barney the scarf. "I want to return this to you. Thank you so much for this morning, I promise I'll pay you back for the food."

Barney looked at the scarf and smiled. "Keep it. Oh, and don't worry about paying me back."

"I don't know what to say," Samuel said, staring at the scarf. "This is the nicest thing any adult has done for me... thank you."

Barney nodded his head then turned his attention back to his work. Curious, Samuel stood next to Barney and saw that he was writing down Roy's actions while watching him on the security cam.

"Why is that bastard working here again; I thought he got fired," Samuel said.

"Language," Barney warned. "Yeah we all thought that too, but guess we were wrong. But don't worry, he won't be causing any trouble now that he knows we'll be watching him."

"Good to know," Samuel said. Looking at the clock, he sighed sadly. "Well, I better get going. I'll see you later and thanks again for everything."

Barney waved goodbye and waited until Samuel was out of sight. Then he switched to another camera and watched as Samuel joined up with Ken and Nathaniel. Remembering what Ken and Nathaniel had said to him, Barney smirked.

"Those clever little shits... I'm going to have to keep my eye on them from now on."


	16. Chapter 14: Master Controller

**Chapter 14: Master Controller**

After turning up nothing in his search for the secret room yesterday with Nathaniel and Samuel, Ken decided to try again. But this time his best friend, Jermaine, came with him instead.

"Thanks for coming along with me, Jermaine. I appreciate it." Ken said, entering the restaurant.

"Of course, Ken. If this secret room does exist, I want to be there to see it." Jermaine said.

"So where's your brother? I thought he was supposed to be with you," Ken asked.

"He had to go take care of something, so it's just us today," Jermaine answered.

"Awesome. Now we can search for the room in peace," Ken said. "Let's go check the back room first."

The two boys made their way to the Parts and Services room, but when they got there, they saw that the door was closed. Ken pressed his ear against the door and heard two voices coming from inside— one belonging to none other than Barney, and the other to another man who's name he didn't know. Jermaine pressed his ear against the door as well and the two listened in on the men's conversation.

"Thanks for helping me take inventory, Barney; I really hate doing this by myself," Scott said.

"It's no problem, I'm happy to help," Barney said, checking things off his list.

"I knew you would which was why I wanted to talk to you," Scott said. "Ever since you first joined us, you've been a huge help. I've never met an employee so helpful, punctual, and kind as you are. You're an incredibly hard worker and you know how to take charge and keep a cool head on your shoulders, which is why I wanted to ask you: how would you like to be an assistant manager?"

"M-Me— assistant manager— really?!" Barney stammered. I-I don't even know what to say! Y-Yes, of course!"

Scott chuckled at Barney's reaction. "But you do know this means you'll have more work ahead of you and longer hours here."

"Hey, if it means more money in my wallet then you won't hear me complaining. Just tell me what I need to do."

Outside the room, Ken was starting to get impatient, hearing the conversation between the two men wasn't going to end soon.

"This is a waste of time, let's go check somewhere else," Ken said.

"We can't leave now," Jermaine said. "What if they reveal something interesting— we gotta keep listening."

Back inside the room, Scott had handed Barney a controller.

"What is this?" Barney asked, examining the device.

"It's the master controller to all of the animatronics," Scott answered. "It allows us to enable or disable them from a safe distance— just in case— and control them manually if we need to. Now that you're an assistant manager you can carry one. Just don't lose it, okay?"

"Don't worry, you can count on me," Barney said.

"Great! Now how's about we celebrate your promotion over some coffee and doughnuts," Scott said, wrapping his arm around Barney's shoulder. The two men exited the room, completely unaware that Ken and Jermaine were hiding around the corner. Once they were out of sight, the two boys entered the room.

"Thank God, I thought they'd never leave! All that babbling and nothing remotely interesting," Ken said. "Well, except for whatever this master controller is supposed to be, but oh well. Let's look around for any clues before someone catches us." Ken and Jermaine looked around the room, trying to find anything out of the ordinary, but unfortunately, their search turned up nothing.

"Not even in here? Man, where could that room be?" Ken wondered.

"Maybe it really doesn't exist," Jermaine sighed.

"Impossible. You heard what that one kid in class said. Her father helped build this place and one night, she overheard him talking about a hidden room and we all know she doesn't lie, so it's real. We just gotta keep looking so come on," Ken turned to leave and that's when he spotted something on the ground. He picked it up and saw it was a controller. "Dude, look what I found!"

"That must be the master controller the man was talking about," Jermaine said in awe. "We really shouldn't be messing with it."

"Oh come on, it could be fun," Ken grinned.

"Ken, you're getting side-tracked."

"No I'm not. Besides, you were the one that insisted we keep listening in on their boring conversation in case they revealed anything interesting. Well, I count this as interesting so let's not waste this golden opportunity. I promise we'll return it afterward."

"And then we can resume our search?" Jermaine asked and Ken nodded. "Okay fine. So where do you want to go?"

"How about Prize Corner? We can test the controller out on that creepy puppet." Ken said as he and Jermaine left the room.

The two boys stopped at the entrance where a group of small children surrounded the Marionette as it handed out prizes. Ken turned to Jermaine and grinned. "Let's see this baby in action!" Ken said, pulling the antennae up on the controller. The controller had many buttons on it along with two analog sticks, but two of the buttons— a red and green one— were much larger than the rest. Seeing it as the obvious choice, Ken pressed the red button. Suddenly, the Marionette slumped over the Prize Box, dropping a handful of prizes on the ground. A few children backed away while others poked at the Marionette.

"Is it dead?" One girl asked.

"Try hitting it. Maybe that'll get it up again," Another girl said.

Ken and Jermaine bit their bottom lips trying their hardest not to laugh watching the children each took turns shaking and hitting the Marionette. "Give it here, I want to try something," Jermaine said, taking the controller from Ken. Scanning over the buttons, he pressed one that was labeled "manual" and toggled the analog sticks. The Marionette's body jerked, causing the small children to back away a little. "Watch this," Jermaine grinned, making the Marionette's arms swing wildly. He then scooped up the prizes that were on the ground and threw them at the children. The room erupted with screams as the children ran, nearly trampling over Ken and Jermaine. Putting the Marionette back on its normal settings, the two quickly left the scene and headed to the dining area.

"Did you see the look on their faces— talk about priceless!" Jermaine laughed. "That was fun, but I want to get back to finding that secret room, so let's return the controller now."

However, Ken had no intention of returning to controller now that he knew what it was capable of. "No way! We can't return it just yet— now that I know what we could really use it for," Ken said, taking the controller away from Jermaine and shoving it into his backpack. "You stay here and see if you can find any clues, I'm going to go home."

"Home? Wait," Jermaine saw the look on Ken's face and became very suspicious of him, so he warily asked, "Ken, what are you planning?"

"Something that's going to require all of our energy," Ken answered. "Meet me back here at eleven tonight and be sure to wear all black. Oh, and don't get caught!"

"Ken, wait, I—" But Ken was already gone, leaving Jermaine wondering what his friend was planning.

* * *

When Jermaine arrived at the restaurant he was annoyed that Ken wasn't there yet. "Dang it Ken, where are you?" He asked quietly to himself, pacing back and forth in the darkness. After what seemed like an eternity, Ken finally showed up. "Took you long enough!"

"Sorry, I had to get some supplies," Ken said. "So, did you find any clues when I left?"

"Uh, no I didn't because I was too busy wondering what hair-brained scheme my friend was plotting! Now do you mind telling me what it is we're doing here in the middle of the freaking night?"

"We're going to use the controller on the animatronics to scare the night guard into telling us where that secret room is," Ken said, lock picking the kitchen door.

"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!"

"Shh! Keep your voice down!"

"You're talking about breaking and entering," Jermaine said. "And if you recall, smart guy, this place has this fancy invention called security cameras! We'll be spotted in an instant."

"As long as we stay in the camera's blind spots we'll be fine. Luckily for you, I know exactly where they are," Ken said, unlocking the door. "Now are you coming or not?"

Jermaine sighed and reluctantly followed Ken inside the dark kitchen. "This is a bad idea," he muttered.

They carefully made their way through the kitchen, making sure not to crash into anything.

"This would be easier if we had a flashlight," Jermaine said.

"Yeah, but we can't risk being spotted," Ken said. "Besides, here are the main doors that'll take us to the dining area and from there, we'll make our way to the Parts and Services room. I'll go first, so stay close behind."

Ken and Jermaine crossed through the large room and down the main hall, being very careful to stay in the camera's blind spots. When they got close to the end, they could hear someone humming. Ken peeked around and saw a figure enter one of the party rooms.

"Crap, it's the night guard," Ken said.

"What do we do now?" Jermaine asked.

"There's only one thing to do— we gotta make a break for the room."

"Ken, no, I changed my mind. Let's leave before—"

"GO!" Ken interrupted, grabbing Jermaine's arm.

Unfortunately, the night guard heard Ken's voice and ran back into the hallway, shining his flashlight on the two just as they entered the room. "Hey, stop right there!"

Ken and Jermaine quickly locked the door behind them and pressed their backs up against it.

"If you know what's good for you, you'll open this door this instant!" The night guard shouted, banging on the door. "Don't make me get the cops over here!"

"This is bad, man!" Jermaine said. "Let's just turn ourselves in!"

"No way, we've come too far!" Ken pulled out the controller and in a panic, pressed a sequence of buttons, trying to get at least one of the old animatronics to move. However, nothing happened. Suddenly, the door was kicked open, causing both boys to fall over. With a flashlight shining on them, they scrambled to their feet and held up their hands in surrender. "Take it easy, we're just kids!"

"Ken? Is that you?"

"Mr. Miles?" Ken said, shielding his eyes from the light. "What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here— what are you doing?!" Barney demanded, lowering his flashlight. "How did you two get in here and— my controller! So you're the ones that took it!" Barney stormed up to Ken and snatched the controller from him. "Start talking, you two. I want answers and I want them now!"

Ken looked over at Jermaine and saw that he was visibly shaking with fear. Not wanting to make this any harder on him, Ken started talking. "After you and your boss left the room, Jermaine and I snuck in looking for clues about the secret room and that's when I saw the controller on the ground," he explained.

"Okay, but that still doesn't answer my question as to why you are here."

"I was going to use the controller on one of the old animatronics to scare whoever was on the night shift into telling us where the secret room was."

Barney looked at the two boys and let out a deep breath. "I could've been fired because of you two," he said. "What you two did was so beyond stupid that words can't even describe it!"

"We're sorry! Please don't call the cops!" Jermaine pleaded.

"I'm not going to call the cops, but I am going to call your parents and let them know exactly what you both did. And you two can bet you won't be seeing this place for a very long time!" Barney scolded.

Because his attention was on Ken and Jermaine, Barney failed to notice that one of the animatronics had activated and was slowly approaching him from behind. Ken and Jermaine, however, saw the animatronic and tried warning him.

"Mr. Miles—"

"Don't interrupt me while I'm talking, young man," Barney told Jermaine.

"No, seriously, dude. Shut up and turn—"

"Again with the disrespect? I swear, you kids these days have absolutely no manners— it's appalling how you speak to adults! If you boys were my kids, I'd have you both—"

"MR. MILES, WATCH OUT!" Both boys yelled.

But it was too late.

In an instant, Barney's expression turned from anger to pure horror as Foxy raised his hook hand and plunged into his back.


	17. Chapter 15: Guilty Feelings

**Chapter 15: Guilty Feelings**

Ken and Jermaine watched in horror as Foxy lifted Barney in the air and threw him across the room like a rag doll. Jermaine turned to Ken, who was frozen with fear.

"Turn him off, Ken! Hurry!" He yelled as Foxy approached Barney again, this time lifting him up by his head.

Snapping out of his daze, Ken quickly grabbed the controller that Barney had dropped and repeatedly pressed the red button. Just as Foxy was about to throw Barney again, he froze and dropped him on the ground with a loud thud.

"Mr. Miles!" Ken shouted as he rushed over to his side. He carefully turned him over and was horrified to see blood coming from Barney's mouth, nose, and forehead. His face was cut up and his cheek was swollen. Ken immediately backed away from Barney and grabbed Jermaine wrist. "We have to go."

"But—"

"NOW!"

Ken and Jermaine bolted out of the room and down the hallway back to the dining area. Ken's thoughts were racing a mile per minute as the image of Barney lying on the ground bleeding and completely limp went through his mind. He tore through the kitchen and out the exit, nearly leaving Jermaine behind.

"Ken, wait!" Jermaine called to him, but he only ran faster, ignoring everything, but the sound of his heart beating against his chest. It was only when Jermaine grabbed his arm and slammed him against a brick wall that he came back to his senses. "Ken, stop already!"

"Why?!" It was then he realized they were all the way downtown away from the pizzeria. With their adrenaline wearing off, Ken and Jermaine took a minute to catch their breaths while also trying to process the severity of what they had just done.

"Oh my God, we killed Mr. Miles!" Jermaine shrieked. "Ken, what are we going to do?! They're going to find his body and they're going to know it was us and— oh God, we'll probably get sent to death row!"

"We're not going to get sent to death row, alright? Calm down!" Ken snapped. "Listen, we're going to be fine, don't worry."

"Don't worry? A man is dead because of us and you have the nerve to tell me not to worry?!" Jermaine tearfully exclaimed, shoving Ken. "Do you not comprehend the massive trouble we're in?!"

"Look, I'll handle this... somehow..." Ken took a deep breath and placed his shaky hand on Jermaine's shoulder. "Let's go home and get some sleep."

Jermaine wanted to protest and ask Ken how he was going to fix this, but when he felt him trembling and saw the look of fear in his face, he decided to keep his mouth shut. Plus, he was exhausted and didn't want to be out in the middle of the night any longer. The two silently walked home knowing full well that neither one of them will be getting much sleep tonight. 

* * *

All through the night, Ken kept twisting and turning, trying to get even a minute of sleep. But every time he closed his eyes, all he could see was Barney's bruised and bloodied body. When he did manage to fall asleep, he had a nightmare of Foxy tearing Barney's limbs off and eating him alive. Even with half of his body gone, Barney wouldn't die; he just tearfully looked at him silently begging for help as Foxy pulled out his intestines. The nightmare continued all through the night until the morning when Ken's alarm went off, jolting him awake as he held his chest panting. Ken groaned and shut off his alarm, feeling groggy and sick to his stomach. He forced himself out of bed to get ready for the agonizing day ahead. 

* * *

"Ken, honey, are you alright? You haven't touched your breakfast," Ken's mother said.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Ken said, poking at his food.

"You don't look fine," Ken's mother said, noticing Ken's flushed appearance. "Maybe you should stay home today."

"I'm fine, really," Ken said curtly. "See look, I'm eating." Ken picked up his fork and forced himself to eat. His mother's boyfriend, David, chuckled at Ken's comment.

"Listen to your mom," David said. "Tell you what, how's about you take off from school today and for lunch, I'll take you to Freddy's. Just promise not to give that nice security guard a hard time— you don't want to work him into an early grave!"

Upon hearing those words, Ken shot up from his seat and darted for the kitchen trash can where he then proceeded to throw up. Ken's mother gasped and ran to his side.

"Keong!" She exclaimed, rubbing his back. "That's it, you're staying home."

"But I have a test today," Ken groaned.

"You can make it up later; your health comes first," Ken's mother said, handing him a glass of water. "Here. Rinse out your mouth and then go lay down and rest."

Ken took the glass and reluctantly did what he was told. After rinsing out his mouth, he walked into the living room and stopped when he noticed David was sitting on the couch, not dressed for work.

"David has the day off so he'll be watching you," Ken's mother said, grabbing her purse and keys. Leaning down, she gave Ken a kiss then she walked over to David giving him a kiss too. "Alright you two, I'll see you later." Once his mother was gone, Ken then turned his attention to David, who was smiling at him.

"Hey, try not to look so down, kiddo. Here, come lay on the couch while I go get you your blanket and pillow. And afterward, we can watch Fredbear and friends together. It's a marathon so you can catch up on— Ken? Hey, Ken, wait!"

Ignoring what David was saying, Ken walked back to his room and shut the door. Pressing his back against the door, Ken slid down and wrapped his arms around his legs, thinking about how he was going to fix this problem. Suddenly, a lightbulb went off in his head. He knew exactly how he was going to fix this mess. Rushing over to the telephone that sat on his nightstand, Ken picked it up and dialed the number he had written down in his address book. _I hope they're still awake..._ he thought to himself when he looked at the clock.

"Wei?" A woman's voice said, pulling Ken out of his thoughts.

"Hey, năinai, it's me."

"Keong! How's my precious grandson?"

"I'm fine. Um, is... is bàba there? I need to speak to him."

"Oh, um... yeah. I'll go get him," Ken's grandmother said slowly. Ken could hear his grandmother calling his father's name, followed by silence. Then suddenly, Ken heard a familiar male voice on the other end.

"Hey, Keong! How's my favorite little man doing?" Ken's father said. Hearing the man's voice again nearly brought tears to Ken's eyes. "Hey, shouldn't you be in school, young man?"

"That's kinda what I wanted to talk to you about," Ken said, trying to keep his voice from cracking. "I really need your help. You see, last night my friend and I, we—"

"Uh, listen, Keong. I'm sorta entertaining some guest over here, so can you call back later?" Ken's father interrupted.

"What?" On the other end, Ken could hear a woman's voice calling his father's name. Even though the man couldn't see the gesture, Ken shook his head and stomped his foot. "No! Tell your company to wait; I really need you now! Listen, I did something really stupid last night and—"

"Keong, I'm sorry but I really can't talk right now. Whatever it is you did, you need to own up to it or tell your mom about it and see what she can do," in the background, Ken could hear the woman getting agitated. "I'll be right there, dear! Keong, I have to go now. I'll talk to you later, okay? Bye, love you!" Before Ken could say anything else, his father hung up, leaving him holding the phone to his ear.

Slowly putting the phone back on the hook, Ken closed his eyes and curled himself in a fetal position on his bed as a few tears slid down his face. He wiped them away and took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. However, being hit with the realization that he couldn't fix this like he had promised Jermaine caused more tears to escape. "I'm sorry, Jermaine... I'm sorry I can't fix this," he muffled into his pillow as he began to cry. 

* * *

Ken groaned as he rolled over and sat up, rubbing his eyes. When he looked over at his clock and saw it was six-thirty, he realized he had cried himself to sleep. He also noticed a try of food along with a note sitting on his nightstand, but he had no intentions of eating since he still felt ill. Ken hugged his knees to his chest and thought about what he was going to do next. He knew he couldn't fix this on his own; he had to tell someone.

Ken grabbed the phone and thought about calling his father again, but decided against it. _I already bothered him enough,_ so instead, Ken dialed another number. _I'm sorry, Jermaine. I don't know who else to turn to._

"Hello? Williams residence; Nathaniel Bernard speaking."

"NATHANIEL!" Ken broke down sobbing, unable to hold back the tears any longer.

"Ken? What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"Please c-come over, I need you!"

I'll be right there, just hang on," Nathaniel said.

"Okay. But don't ring the doorbell, come through my window instead."

Nathaniel went silent for a moment, then he said, "alright, just have your window unlocked. I'll be there in about twenty minutes." After hanging up, Ken buried his face in his pillow and continued to cry.

Twenty minutes later, Ken heard a knock at his window and saw it was Nathaniel. He carefully climbed in and brushed the dust from the windowsill off his pant legs.

"I really wish you'd let me come in the normal way; I hate sneaking in—" Nathaniel was cut off by Ken wrapping his arms around his waist, nearly knocking him to the floor.

"Oh, Nathaniel, I don't know what to do!" Ken sobbed. "I don't know who else to turn to. I-I tried fixing this by myself, b-but I can't, I just—"

"Ken, slow down. I can't understand you," Nathaniel said, leading Ken back to his bed. "Now, take a deep breath and tell me what happened."

Ken took a shaky breath and told Nathaniel everything. When he was done speaking, he looked at Nathaniel and saw he had one eyebrow raised. "What?"

"Ken, Mr. Miles isn't dead," Nathaniel said.

"He's not?! You mean he's alive?!"

"Yeah, I saw him earlier when I went to my doctor's appointment. He looked pretty beat up and in discomfort, but other than that he was in good spirits. He even told me he was going back to work after his checkup," Nathaniel said.

 _Thank God... he's okay,_ Ken let out a sigh of relief. "so, um, did he tell you—"

"No, actually. He just said he was in an accident," Nathaniel interrupted, knowing what Ken was going to ask. He then stood up and crossed his arms. "However, I already knew the truth because Jermaine told me everything when I caught him sneaking in last night."

"H-he did, huh? Oh..." Ken looked down at his feet, feeling very ashamed. Nathaniel then leaned forward and flicked him on his forehead. "Ow!"

"That's for being stupid," Nathaniel scolded. "Seriously, what the heck were you two thinking?! Breaking into a pizzeria in the middle of the night to look for some dumb room that doesn't exist and nearly costing a man his life! Not to mention you stole company equipment and messed with the animatronics, even though you were told countless times not to." Ken looked away and sniffled a little. Nathaniel let out a sigh and spoke more softly. "Listen, Ken. I'm going to take Jermaine to Freddy's to apologize to Mr. Miles and I think you should come with us. I'll go talk to your mom first to make sure—"

"NO! Don't tell my mom, Nathaniel!" Ken suddenly blurted.

"Ken—"

Please, Nathaniel... don't," Ken pleaded with tears in his eyes. "I'll go see Mr. Miles, just... not right now." Nathaniel opened his mouth to say something, but seeing fresh tears roll down Ken's face made him decide it was better for him to cry out his emotions first, so he nodded his head and walked back to the window. "Um, Nathaniel," Ken spoke as Nathaniel was climbing out. "Can you tell Jermaine I'm sorry for everything I put him through?"

"Sure thing," Nathaniel gave Ken a sympathetic smile and closed his window.

Ken waited until Nathaniel was gone before murmuring, "and I'm sorry for being a terrible person." 

* * *

It was almost midnight when Barney finished the last of the paperwork. Setting his pen down, he yawned and stretched only to hiss as pain shot through his body. "Damn! I better give this paperwork to the bosses pronto." Gathering all of the paperwork into a folder, Barney slowly stood up and left the office to look for his bosses. Luckily, he found them both talking outside. He approached them and handed Claire the folder

"Here you go, boss. I have officially completed my duty for the night," Barney gave a mock salute and hissed in pain.

"Yikes. Somone's seen better days," Claire said, taking the folder

"Foxy really did a number on you, huh? I told you to be careful around those old animatronics, they're very unpredictable," Scott said. "Seriously, man, just file for workmans comp."

"Thanks, but I'll be fine. I just need to take my medicine and I'll be good as new," Barney said. "Besides, I'm an assistant manager now; I can't afford to be slacking off.

"It's not slacking off, it's resting," Claire said. "How else do you expect to get better if you keep pushing yourself like this? You look like crap as it is, so at least think about it."

Barney frowned at Claire's remark, but she was right. He looked terrible and maybe taking several days off would help him recover faster, but it also meant being away from what he loved: watching the children, and that really didn't sit well with him. Not wanting to argue about this further, he sighed and said, "I'll think about it, but I don't make any promises."

"Good," Scott said, lightly patting Barney's shoulder. "Well then, I wish you all a goodnight. Drive safely."

"You too." Barney waved goodbye and headed to his car. When he got there, he looked at his reflection and grimaced. _Damn that little brat,_ he thought to himself as he unlocked the door. _How dare he do this to me! I swear the next time I see him I'm gonna—_ Barney looked up and jumped when he suddenly noticed Ken sitting on the hood of his car, staring at him. "Oh my God, Ken. You scared me!"

Ken drew his knees close to his chest and asked, "how do you feel?"

Barney slowly sat next to Ken and rubbed his neck. "Like I was hit by a truck," he answered.

"Oh... Do you remember anything?"

Barney closed his eyes to think. "I remember catching you and your friend and scolding you both when suddenly, I felt something poke my back before being lifted in the air and then blacking out. When I woke up, I found myself laying on the couch in the employee break room feeling immense pain all over my body and then freaking out when I saw my reflection," Barney said, giving Ken a pointed look. Ken bit his bottom lip and looked away, feeling even more ashamed. Barney let out a sigh then said, "I saw your mom earlier."

That got Ken's attention. "What?"

"She came by with Nathaniel and your friend to apologized on your behalf. And so we sat down and had a long discussion about you.

 _Dammit, Nathaniel, you promised!_ "What exactly did she say to you?"

"Well, I told her everything and she wasn't very happy to hear about all the trouble you've been causing me. But despite that, she said you felt really bad about what you did and that you're a good kid and you don't mean to do the things you do," Ken's face turned red with a mixture of embarrassment and anger, but it wasn't until what Barney said next that really made him snap. "And the reason you lash out is because of what happened to you back in Shanghai when you caught your father—"

"Shut up! How dare you speak of things you don't know!" Ken snapped, jumping off the hood. "It was her fault he did what he did. She's nothing but a stupid, selfish bitch!"

"Hey, you watch your mouth, young man!" Barney said, causing Ken to jump a little. "You have no idea how lucky you are to have a mom as great as yours; a lot of people would kill for that!"

"You don't know what you're talking about," Ken huffed.

"Oh I don't, huh?" Barney slowly stood up and walked closer to Ken, "well, let me tell you something about me. Growing up, I had two very loving parents and a wonderful older sister, but fifteen years ago, I did something really stupid and you want to know what my parents did? They kicked me to the curb and told me to never show my face around them again. When my mother died I had to watch the funeral from afar because I knew if my family saw me, they'd probably throw me in the grave too."

Ken could see a pained look in Barney's eyes; he could tell even after all those years it still affected it. "My mother wouldn't do that to me," Ken said.

"You're right, she wouldn't. You don't know how lucky you are to have such a caring family because as for me, I have no family. I can die tomorrow and they wouldn't care; no one would. So stop being such a brat and count your blessings." Barney turned to his car and opened the door to get in. Ken was at a loss for words, but then he slammed the car door shut and looked at Barney with a fierceness in his eyes.

"I don't know who you think you are, but you don't anything about me or how I feel! What you went through and what I'm going through are two totally different things, so don't try acting like we're the same!" Ken took a deep breath in an effort to calm himself down, while Barney stared at him in shock at his sudden outburst. "Listen, I didn't come here to fight with you; I came here to apologize to you. I shouldn't have taken the controller and I shouldn't have broken into the restaurant and nearly cost you your job and life. I'm sorry. I just wanted to find that hidden room, I didn't mean to hurt you."

"I'm happy you came all this way to apologize, it means a lot," Barney said. "But like I said before, there is no hidden room. Whatever you've heard is nothing more than a dumb rumor. So for the sake of my remaining patience with you, just drop this silly little search— it's getting you nowhere."

Ken nodded his head, however, he had no intentions of giving up. He knew Barney was lying, but he wasn't going to push his luck by arguing about this further. "So, what now? Are you going to report Jermaine and I to the cops or are you just going to ban us for life? I'm sure you must have some sort of punishment in mind."

 _What I want to do goes far beyond the legal system!_ But Barney didn't dare say that out loud. Instead, he gave Ken a tired smile."Well, after discussing it with your mother, I decided it was best is she handled your punishment. As for your little friend, his punishment is still pending."

"But the tape. Jermaine and I didn't stay in the blind spots; the camera caught us both. If your bosses see it and find out you didn't do anything about it—"

"They can't incriminate you without any evidence," Barney interrupted, holding the security tape. "Besides, your mother agreed to pay for any of my medical expenses— which by the way, will be taken out of your allowance, so I think that makes us about even."

Ken didn't like the idea of losing his allowance, but it was better than being sent to jail, so he sighed and nodded his head. "Fair enough," he said. "You know, Mr. Miles, you may be a nosey, loud-mouth weirdo that talks more out of your butt than your mouth, but you're alright."

"Wow, thanks. I feel so loved right now," Barney sarcastically said as he got into his car and started the ignition. "It's really late, how about I give you a ride home?" He offered which Ken responded with a snort.

"Oh God no! I snuck out to come here and if you take me home, I'll be busted for sure!"

"Come on, just get in the car. I don't feel comfortable letting a five-year-old walk home by himself in the middle of the night."

"First of all, I'm seven," Ken huffed, "and secondly, I can get home just fine; I've done it many times before. Just worry about yourself and focus on getting better." With that, Ken waved goodbye and headed for home, feeling a huge weight lifted off his shoulders.

Barney watched from his rearview mirror as Ken walked down the darkened street and disappeared into the night. Then turning his attention to the tape, he grabbed it and squeezed it tightly in his hands. "Stupid little boy!" Barney scoffed at Ken's ignorance. As much as he would've loved to punish them, the truth of the matter was he couldn't let anyone see the tape. As far as everyone knew, the animatronic activated itself and attacked him. If they knew the humiliating truth that a pair of seven-year-olds were the cause of the attack, not only would he be reprimanded for being so careless, he'll also be the laughing stock of the whole restaurant.

No one would respect him again.

The thought alone sent him into a rage. With the tape in hand, Barney broke the flap off and tore all the film out, then he viciously slammed the tape against the dashboard until it shattered into pieces. He threw the remains in the backseat and drove out of the parking lot, while also cursing Ken's name.

"Damn you, Ken," Barney growled. "You're lucky that night guard was there because if he wasn't—" Suddenly a large smile stretched across Barney's face as a sinister thought came to mind. If only he had been on the night shift, he could've lured Ken inside with the promise of showing him the safe room. Then once there, torture him all through the night before finally ending his miserable little life. Barney chuckled thinking of all the ways he would've done it from breaking his fingers to beating him a blunt object— the possibilities were endless! Unfortunately, the chance of getting Ken alone like that again was very slim.

But not impossible.

He just needed to be patient. After all, it wouldn't be the first time he had to wait before enacting his dark fantasy.


	18. Shattered Dreams update

Hey, guys. I hope everyone is doing well.

Recently, I've been doing a lot of thinking about many things regarding my works, especially my Five Nights at Freddy's fan-fiction, Shattered Dreams. Since chapter 10, my updates on the fic have been extremely slow (updating one page per month) and that was because when I first started writing it I had so many ideas and so it was easy to get each chapter out on a normal pacing schedule. But as time went on, I started to hate what I previously wrote and became a little self-conscious about many things in my story that it became a little overwhelming and it wasn't fun anymore. So I decided what I'm going to do is put SD on an undetermined hiatus. This way I'll be able to relax more and go back and fix up things in the story. I want to keep going with the story and make it as good as possible for all my readers.

Thank you all for your support, it means so much to me!

You can also follow me on my other social medias!

Deviantart: SapphireSky1992  
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Twitter: SapphireSky_413


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